Angry Metal Guy

For anyone who has regularly read my site, it is pretty obvious that I am a big Orphaned Land fan. So it is no exaggeration to say I was pretty stoked to do an interview with the band’s vocalist, lyricist and gigantic personality, Kobi Farhi. We had a chance to talk about several different things, ranging from the cultural approach to metal in Orphaned Land to working with Steven Wilson (from Porcupine Tree). For the first time I am going to offer the audio of this interview edited down with some clips from the record, as well as typing out the “transcript” as it were. The transcript, of course, will have the full text and the audio is a bit more edited down so as to cut out the BS.

Orphaned Land formed in 1992 as Resurrection, however the band changed their name early on. Since then they have produced one demo and four full length albums, including 2010′s The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR. The band has major middle eastern influences and is well known (maybe infamous?) for taking huge amounts of time between records. However, this quantity deficit is offset by the quality of their releases.

AMG: Why don’t you give us an introduction?

Kobi: I’m the vocalist of Orphaned Land for the last 18 years. This is mainly what I do and Orphaned Land is like my project life for me and for most of the band members because we are all into music but much more than that when it comes to the concept of the album and stuff like that. So we are very much devoted to what we do. [We] come from the Middle East which is a lot of the time a very tragic area for so many people so this is like some kind of mission that we have here as musicians. I’m 34 years old, living in [inaudible] which is very near to Tel Aviv. And that’s right about it.

AMG: You said you were the vocalist for 18 years, but you guys have had like what, 4 studio records now?

Kobi: We had a demo and this is like the fourth album, yes. It takes us pretty much time to release an album but when we do it, I mean, it’s a big celebration for fans and everything because everybody is like waiting for our album approximately five to six years. I guess it’s an outcome of living in our area, which is very diverse and complex and so is our music. We never deliver an album of like 35 minutes or 40 minutes it’s always like above the one hour [mark]. The latest album is 78 minutes long. It’s very complex and diverse and full of layers and stuff and maybe those are the reasons altogether why it takes us this long to come with an album.

AMG: So how does the writing process start? Who is the spark for that or do you guys write separately and bring things together?

Kobi: We have a very strange way of working, I always love to call it the puzzle formula. We always collect the material like guitar riffs but we never write a song. It’s always like a bank of riffs. It could’ve been written on several instruments and everybody composes, I mean, even if I don’t play guitar I have material that I compose and I make sure to record myself singing or stuff like this for example. We always find a concept or a theme that we want to speak about and once we have this concept we start to divide the story conceptually speaking to some kind of chronological parts of the story. Like if we were making a film for example or a script. And according to that we are starting to build, we go to the bank of our riffs and we start to build the music putting the riffs in like pieces of a puzzle. So if one of the parts is very sad then we will go to the bank and search for these sad parts that we have and wrote and we use it. And if it’s a part that’s speaking about, I dunno, the wrath of God or some kind of a war or something like that we go to the more extreme parts and we put it on that and layer-on-layer, this is how we build the album like a puzzle. I don’t know if there is any other band working that way but it’s very complex and you don’t get to see the picture yourself as a composer you know, because you build it like a picture. And only in the end when you make the album, you just start to see the picture as well.

AMG: You say that you’re puzzling it together, so that process goes on for what a couple of years? Are you demoing as you’re doing that?

Kobi: Well, it could take us like, yeah, definitely like a year and a half just to see and to build the whole puzzle. Then we are rehearsing the material for six months, so this is like the last two years are always very much intensive, in terms of composing and rehearsing the stuff and making all of the arrangements, while the first years are all about composing and collecting material.

AMG: And you guys work thematically like you said, and the new record is a concept album, but unfortunately when I get promo I don’t get lyrics. So I was wondering if you could elucidate the concept a little bit.

Kobi: Well, first of all, for an album and music such as ours it is really shit to listen to it without the lyrics because there is so much into it and stuff.. It’s basically a concept album about the warrior of light who is not some kind of any [irrelevant?] messiah who is going to come and rescue all of us, but the warrior of light is in simple words it’s just me, you and you know the listener who listens to the album. Because we believe that people all around the world are living in this frustration, wherever you look at them. I don’t mean the Middle East, but everywhere. People are unhappy. Whether it’s capitalism or their parents, girlfriend or even teacher or priest. They’re not really happy about the way the world is looking out [sic]. And the way we see the world is that there is a very big chaotic, spiritual darkness that we are into. When it comes to the Middle East this is like this black circle that goes on and on between Israelies and Palestinians or Jews and Muslims. But if you goes centuries back you see the Abrahamic religions killing each other for centuries. So, this darkness of ours we are trying to light the inner light of each and every one of [us] human beings because we very much believe that human nature is also good when your inner light is on. When you’re able to see that we are all pretty much the same and that there is no difference to categorize people or to think that you’re different than the other or to not want to communicate with the other. So this is something that we are trying to avoid and we use it as an allegory “the darkness” as a place of questions and “the light” as the place of answers where you can see more. Just as if I will put you in a very dark room you will not see anything and if I give a match into your hand you will be able to see more. And questions that you had in the darkness, you will have your answers while having a match in your hand. So the light in many ways is some kind of an answer, giving you more information about where you are. Adding to that your taking your inner light and lighting it within your soul, it gives you the opportunity to see that there isn’t any difference between you and your enemy or between the Israeli and the Palestinian or between.. it doesn’t matter, you know? Between the black and the white. It’s pretty much the same and this is what we are trying to do here because we are coming from such a place, we are not thinking about mythologies or history stories. We are singing about things that are happening right here right now. And I want to give a better Middle East to my future children. I want the Orphaned Land to come back and be a Holy Land a Promised Land. And that’s why we chose to deal with this subject.

AMG: That leads to about 1400 questions for me, because something that I’ve been thinking about since I watched Global Metal [the documentary from Sam Dunn] is that in a lot of ways sort of thematically, heavy metal has very much been a music of individualism and a breaking away from society and rebelling against society. It seems like what you’re doing here is that you’re thematically talking about unity at the same time that you’re also talking about what you’re referring to as the Abrahamic religions, which is almost the opposite of where metal has gone in Europe…

Kobi: We’re not missionaries, I mean, we’re not preaching to people “go to church” or “Islam is good for you” or “Judaism is good for you”, you know, we have a lot of criticism against religion just like black metal bands. The only thing is that we’re not using it in the way black metal bands choose to use it. We use it in our own political or artistic way just like we did in our band photo. We are not a “white metal” band whatsoever, I mean, you can’t consider us as a white metal band. And we have a lot of critique against religions and what they’re doing. And it’s not really uniting everyone into one group, we do support your being individual. We just don’t support the individual rejecting the other individual or considering himself being more just or more on the right side than the other individual in front of him. That’s the main problem. We don’t mind everyone having his own ways on the road, it’s just that we don’t want this conflict to go and smash one another so that we will kill each other. You know, because human kind lost completely their morality when it comes to human life. I mean, I would even say that if I was like, I dunno, one of the leaders of the world I would have summoned all the leaders of the world and created a new law that says it is forbidden to kill other people. And I would educate it in schools that this is something you cannot even imagine. Of course, you can do it. You can take a knife and you can kill someone according to your ideology or holding your holy book in your hand. But this is not something that God in any way tells you to do. Anway, the God that I believe in. So, I would even go further. I would say to you that it isn’t possible for people to think or to imagine themselves having a sexual relationship with their mother or sister right? This is like really hilarious and, “woah!” so um, if this is something we cannot even imagine how can we imagine, or even not imagine.. how come we can kill people which is something even worse than that? So, I would say that I have nothing against being individual, I just want people to be in harmony and some synergy. I mean, if you listen to our music this is a fusion. A fusion of instruments it’s a fusion of ideas. It’s a fusion of languages. And each and every one of the languages or ideas is very much individual when you take a tazuki (suzuki?) guitar into your hands this is very much an individual guitar and each of the instruments is very much individual. But when you combine them together you’re getting this rich, colorful synergy between the whole sound and.. you can love Orphaned Land, you can hate Orphaned Land but you can never say that this is not a very rich music. And that’s what we’re trying to get here in terms of human people.

AMG: Definitely. What you’re saying is true, but I think the point I was making was that black metal, and Satanism in the Levayen sense is serious selfishness and the basic idea is a big “fuck you” to the world, to everyone. And to quote Fenriz from Darkthrone: You’re throwing fists in all directions no matter at whom. And I think it’s interesting, because it’s very much one of the things that appeals to me personally about Orphaned Land that it’s a very different approach.

Kobi: Our approach is very different, that’s for sure, you know, I mean we come from a very different place with such a different mentality and when everyone is used to Norwegian black metal, bands from Europe and from USA and suddenly you have this band coming up with a completely different approach coming up from the Middle East, so definitely it’s something to notice.

AMG: What are you influenced by as far as non-metal music goes?

Kobi: I would say everything. Being such a fusionist in our metal music we go and listen to any kind of music and we can find beauty in any kind of music that you could just put in your mind. If you go through my CD collection you can find music from [inaudible] or opera from Puccini. You know, you can find Arabian music you can find [inaudible] music, definitely all kinds. I think that music is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. So, just everything, I would say. You name it and I love it. Because this is why we also stretch it from extreme music, which is metal and growling to a very much cultural music because we are very much fans of music and we are very much receivers of any music that we will get and listen. Music always fascinates me, strange instruments always fascinate me and the human need for music. So everywhere that you go you will see that human nature created these instruments and stuff. This is always something fascinating for us, especially because we are Orphaned Land and we are great fans of these things.

AMG: You guys chose to work with Steven Wilson, what were the specific reasons that you chose to work with him?

Kobi: We’re great fans of Porcupine Tree and during the years we always noticed that despite the fact that Porcupine Tree is playing this prog rock music we could hear that the guy has this thing with metal music. Just in the Porcupine Tree music and then, of course, he also worked with Opeth, which really gave us the [receipt?] for what we had thought. I always wanted to have someone that is very much skilled to understand our music and to know how to mix it properly and how to get involved and it’s also interesting to have someone out of the band involved in your project if it’s the right person so this is a great added value. And Steven was definitely fitting this position and I think that he did a great job in terms of playing keyboards or even mixing the album and his ideas I think work. And it was a privilege of course to work with him because we’re fans of the guy and it’s amazing to have him on our record. I think from his side of things it was also great because he’s always looking for this unique music and interesting music and we are very much flattered that he found it in Orphaned Land. He always said that if Opeth would have been born in Israel they would have been Orphaned Land and the opposite, if Orphaned Land had been Scandinavian we would have been Opeth. This is the way he sees it and I can really understand where he comes from and that’s probably why he chose to work with both bands.

AMG: And how did that come about with him playing on the album? Because I know that you talk about the puzzle method and how you rehearse six months, so how does that work once you get into the studio and you know what you’re going to do and then suddenly you’re adding things in with him? I mean, how does that come about?

Kobi: Uh, we had sessions with him when we were playing him the music and just giving him the list of songs and just mentioning times when we would have thought it would be fitting keyboards. But it was just in a drive from our side of things and of course he had the free access also to offer whatever he wants so we gave him the music with our advice and he took it and just learned it and decided what to do. And it was this kind of a ping pong between us at the end of the day and we very much knew what kind of sound we wanted to use, like the Melltron and the Hammond sounds or the Melltron choirs which are very much analogic [sic] classic rock from the 70s kind of sound. And he agreed with these and we agreed with most of his ideas.

AMG: Were you guys physically together at any point? Or were you just working over the Internet sending files back and forth?

Kobi: I was in London actually at some later stages of the mixes, I went to London just to.. I spent like three days with Steven on the studio and we worked our asses off and you know we recorded some stuff and we fixed some stuff and I had this like… I came probably with my 40 pages of comments. More here, more effects over there.. let’s try this here. It was like, very generic work but it was really necessary to the whole process so.. and he was very much understanding and really into it and he understood that the album was very complex and he’s claiming that this is like the most complex album that he ever mixed in his life. So I will take it as a compliment in a way.

Clip from His Leaf Never Withers (Pay attention the violins.. we talk about them next!)

AMG: There were a few things on this record that I thought were a step away from Mabool a little bit. Was this a real orchestra or just really good samples?

Kobi: No, no, it’s an orchestra. All violins, I mean 99% of the violins on the album are not keyboards. So 99% of them are the Nazereth Orchestra which are like Arabian violin players who play the usual violin like the one that we all know from Classical music but they just use it in a different approach. The way the play on it. So it was a fascinating experience for us and for them as well. For them I mean, to work with this rock band [inadible] I mean, it doesn’t happen to them every day. Also for us to have those sounds on our music and riffs, it’s very unique and giving the atmosphere of the Middle East so much and really helping the music to give the color of our region.

AMG: And that’s sort of the unison violins that will swoop in and out.. that’s what that is right?

Kobi: Yeah, yeah, yeah..

AMG: That works really well. It’s one of the things that stood out for me right away when I was listening to the album was how cool that was.

Kobi: Yup, this is one of the things we didn’t do on the past albums and we wanted to have that sound. We wanted to be unique on this album, to make it differ from the rest while using these violins. I mean it was a whole process, we did rehearsals with them and it was like a whole project to work on parts with those guys and yeah, the results are great and I’m happy that you noticed that.

AMG: You guys did your first, or I might be wrong, but these are your first Arabic lyrics on this album?

Kobi: No, I used Arabic in the past, but this is like, I would say, the best and the longest process that I ever did with an Arabic text, I mean I really worked on it a lot. It’s like, I had to execute Arabic which is, you know you have to be perfect with your diction and your pronunciation and with the way you sing it which is a completely different approach of singing. So, yeah, I worked on it a lot. I mean, we used Arabic from day 1 here and there, but this is like the first time that we used it really massively, like in song number 9 [Disciples of the Sacred Oath Part II].

AMG: And you had actually said that this was an appeal for peace or something along those lines?

Kobi: Yeah, among the other versus that we do it, this was like a very important song. Usually we use our messages in a very poetic way, or allegorical way but this is like a very up front song if you just get the lyrics. You can find them I think on our website, if you look for them today you can just go to the album section and you can read all the lyrics. So you can check this song which is, I mean the way we approached to Muslims as Israelis, it’s very much up front and like.. we really speak to them directly in many ways. And I did it as a gesture, you know, as a gift to show them how much I have nothing against them. How much I appreciate their religion, how much I love their culture because if you can listen to the way I execute, the way I sing it, you can definitely see that it comes from the bottom of my heart and that’s what we wanted to get there. And we already have had a bit of criticism about it because.. in terms of being religious, we did something which is actually forbidden because we used a text from the Koran. But, what we’re trying to say that all the people is that in order to create unification sometimes you need to break old rules. And this old rule doesn’t make any sense to me, this isn’t like the Danish caricature that was laughing about Mohammad, there isn’t anything comic over here. I’m just singing the words which I chose from the Koran and I sing it from the bottom of my heart. And if the Koran are God’s words and music is one of God’s gifts then why is it forbidden to combine his gift with his own words? So, um, we did it in a very respectful way, and still people sometimes find it offensive, I would say. But I guess that’s the way it is. You cannot make everyone happy and this is art and when you make art you follow your heart and we definitely followed our hearts on this one.

Clip from Disciples of the Sacred Oath part II [This is the Arabic section]

AMG: How are you received in the region and by Muslim fans? Do you have a lot of them and do you find that you attract religious people?

Kobi: Well, we have a lot of fans from all kinds and definitely being Israeli and having so many fans coming from Arab countries it is something that is really on the limit of being bizarre, or not real because it’s unbelievable. I mean, you cannot imagine the fans of Real Madrid cheering Barçelona. Now we mention how bizarre it is for Arab people to be the followers of an Israeli band because Israelis and Arabs are killing each other for like, I dunno, decades. And it’s really crazy but I think that in a way those people succeeded to understand and with the power of music being a global language, they succeeded to understand that we are.. yeah, we are Israelis but we are not for Israelis more than we are for Arabs. We are just musicians and we are for everybody. The fact that they realize that, this is one of our great successes along our career. And, the fact that they see us as their Middle Eastern ambassadors in the world wide metal scene this is also a huge honor for us and we are very happy about it. There are always religious people that are frustrated with what we do. Orthodox Jews can be very much frustrated with me dressing up like Jesus Christ in the band photo. [chuckles] You know, but, I am a great fan of religion, I would say. I can walk with religion hand-in-hand but I am walking with religion hand-in-hand only until the point where religion starts to tell me what to do or what is forbidden or when religious people are starting to speak to me as if they know better than me. Or as if they are the ones closer to God and they can teach me and not the opposite. This is the place where I take my hand off and I’m telling them to continue with their own way, but I’m going to stay here. This is my red line. So, I cannot accept any criticism of “Don’t use the Koran”, “Don’t dress up like Jesus Christ”, “Don’t sing in Arabic because we’re enemies”, this is the kind of thing I cannot accept as a musician. This is bullshit. I think people sometimes should be afraid when they speak in the name of God because they might piss God off. God might be pissed off about the things that they say on his behalf. But with that said, I am a great fan of religion in terms of trying to be a way of morality and tolerance and stuff like that. The fact that people fail to do it is another story, but I love religion when it succeeds to deliver in those kind of things.

AMG: Do you engage politically at all?

Kobi: Well, it’s a good question.. but I would start saying that I think that being political means that you have to take some side. You have to be on one of the sides and you have to be against some parts of the other side. I would say that we are dealing with what happens in political aspects because I’m not singing about love songs or you know about girlfriends or stuff like that. We’re just singing about our political reality that’s true. So we sing about it, but we are standing in the middle and trying to unite everyone to understand each other better. I don’t want to unite people to be, I dunno.. I don’t want Muslims to be Jews or Jews to be Muslims I just want Muslims and Jews to be friends. So we are just standing in the middle and using the music as our tool in order to make it happen because I don’t believe in politicians. I never voted in the elections. And, uh, I think that politicians are very great at dividing people to take care of their own interests. So, I don’t have any other solution and I’m not trying to change the world, I’m just trying to help people to think differently or to make them think. It’s up to them what they will do with it at the end of the day.

AMG: Just to play devil’s advocate, don’t you think that at some point though you need individuals such as yourself who are looking to unite people involved in the political process as opposed to the dividers and the power mongers and war mongers?

Kobi: I don’t know, you know, I mean we have thousands of people who follow Orphaned Land and follow our messages and if you look at our Facebook pages or everything we just see Muslims, Jews and Christians just writing “peace” and “let’s unite and stop fighting” and I believe that if this movement will grow bigger, I mean, I definitely don’t want to be a politician or a Prime Minister but I think that if this movement will grow bigger then they will speak about it with their friends, they will raise their children to think in a different way than politicians or newspapers or the media teach us to think. And they will be able to see the whole picture because I think that music is much stronger than the media or the news. News just wants to sell news. And I know that when the newspaper is shouting at me in red letters, big letters, I know that something in me wants to buy and read it because this is human nature. We like these dramas and we like the news of tanks or killing each other always sells more than people hugging each other. I’m not some kind of a hippy, but I’m just saying that if we already have thousands of friends and fans who are Arabs that they are my sparckle of hope to this region. It is still nothing, it is still a small movement, but it’s a movement you know? And it’s amazing and I think that the more that we get to tell this amazing story of Orphaned Land and their fans, the more people will get into it and maybe a better future will come to this region.

Clip from Olat Ha Tamid

You can check more samples from this album on Orphaned Land‘s MySpace or just go out and buy the album, which is out worldwide as of today!

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One of the most promising bands that I’ve ever encountered in my time in the underground has been Luna Mortis. Within the scene that they were surrounded by, it was basically taken for granted that if someone from the scene was going to take off it would be them (at the time called The Ottoman Empire). To no one’s surprise they got bigger, got better management, got a better band together and continued developing. To no one’s surprise they started getting good press and good reviews and making contacts. To, I think, a lot of people’s surprise they ended up getting signed by Century Media. Not that they didn’t deserve it, but just to think that a group of local kids were getting picked up by the label that had shepherded so many of us into the extreme metal scene was pretty astounding.

It was with some disappointment and, frankly, a little bit of bitterness that I heard that they had been dropped. Having spoken with Mary Zimmer (the vocalist) around the time that they had been signed, it sounded like they had been given a a hard sell: “we will let you develop.” That, obviously, didn’t happen. I caught up with Mary and got it on the record. Here’s the transcript of that encounter.

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AMG: Yeah, well the last time we talked you guys had just gotten signed and the album was on its way and everything was hunky dorey, and yeah.. when did you guys find out that you were getting dropped by Century Media?

Mary Z.: Well, there’d been talk bopping around about what we were going to do for the next thing, you always have to talk to the label about what’s going to happen. You know, for your next album what are you going to do. And when are you going in and when are you going to start. Actually, technically, I don’t think our option period has technically arrived yet, but the owner got together with a bunch of staff and he cleaned house. I mean, that’s basically it, and they decided that due to whatever reasons certain bands they weren’t going to reinvest in. So, we’re not the only ones. But we are the only ones who just came out and said “we’re getting dropped,” and that was admittedly on me, but I figure why should we have to sugar coat this shit? It’s metal, let’s just fucking say what it is. Everybody wants to spin everything and say “parted ways” and blah, blah, blah it’s like no, they’re dropping us. It doesn’t mean that we failed or something or that we’re not going to go to another label or put out another label, it just is what happened and I’d rather just say what happened.

AMG: Yeah, I think one of the things we’d talked about was that you were confident that they were going to let you guys develop.

Mary Z.: Yeah, well, that’s what we were told. That’s not what happened, but that’s what we were told. We were going to be able to develop over a few albums. They told us that they thought we were a career band, you know. Suddenly, though the economic crash made everybody start thinking completely differently, and I think their mind changed about business in a lot of ways in a short amount of time.

AMG: So you don’t think that they were just blowing sunshine up your ass when you guys got signed…

Mary Z.: I don’t know, dude, to be honest. I don’t know, I really like a lot of the people from Century and a lot of these people are still my friends. I think what happened is that Century Media has a lot of successful, very big bands right now and if you get down to the basic numbers of it we’re a small fish in a very big pond. So they still have a small staff even though they have the “big pond” and they don’t have a lot of time to develop new artists as much as they did, so if it doesn’t hit on your own, you’re kinda left… they did a lot for us as far as publicity goes, and that was great and I am thankful for them for that, but again like I said, there’s a lot of big bands and when you only deal with such a small staff of people there’s only so much they can do. So, we’ve got interest from other labels and things, and I’m hoping that we will find the right one that will have more time to invest in us.

AMG: So do you think you guys went too big too soon?

Mary Z.: No, I don’t think we jumped into anything too big too early. I think being on Century Media really helped us a lot. Like I said, they did do a lot for us, getting the name out and everything so we got a lot out of it. We got an album out in Japan. It’s not that it was a bad thing or too much too soon it’s just that you’re talking about a label thats size doesn’t match the success of some of their bands, you know. They need more people and it’s hard to make your label bigger when the record industry is in flux. I’m not trying to say that I’m not perturbed that we were dropped, don’t get me wrong, I am not happy about it one bit. Because I think people should invest in artists and I think that’s the problem right now is that people want “instant instant instant” and throughout history all of the big bands weren’t “instant instant instant.” So the thing is that we were a small fish in a big pond, you know, and so getting the attention and the focus and the clout and the pull that the big bands get is hard to do. We were not the number one priority because we weren’t selling 100,000 records immediately. But at the same time when all the attention is on the band selling all those records it’s hard for people to focus on artist development. I’m not trying to say that’s good or bad, I’m just trying to say how it is. Take it for what you will.

AMG: Are you guys still working with the same management group, though? I mean, you haven’t had a major shakeup have you?

Mary Z.: We haven’t had the same management for a long time but we still have the same booking agent and everything. In general everything is cool, we’re all going to do Luna Mortis we’re going to do it all the way still. Some of us are also going to pursue other projects in addition to Luna Mortis. Audition for other things and kinda expand our musical endeavors that way, if you would. Which is something that for the last 10 years, at least Brian [Koenig] and I, we’ve been like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam with only this band and neither one of us have ever really looked at anything else. So, we’re going to keep doing Luna Mortis and we’re going to keep doing it like we are now, like the full deal but we’re also going to make other music and work on other things a lot of us. Because it’s just that time, if we’re going to do that, we should do it.

AMG: Do you see how that could look a little defeatist?

Mary Z.: Oh yeah, it does look defeatist, I mean.. The thing is we have other label interests and we’re pursuing it. Like, me personally, I wanna try and do other things in addition to Luna Mortis, you know, there’s a lot of musical stuff I’ve always put on the back burner and when you sign with a record label they always get first dibs on whatever project you’re doing. So if I’m going to do that it’s a good time if we’re in flux with who we’re signed with. It’s a good time for me to try and see what I can do elsewise and there are other projects that I’m going to do vocals on. But this side stuff isn’t going to be full time like Luna Mortis.

AMG: Yeah, I see, it’s just that in some ways it could be see as “Ah, well, we had the shot and it went to hell, so.. time to move on.”

Mary Z.: Yeah. I mean, sometimes it feels that way but now that people are coming out of the woodwork a little bit more it feels less that way.

AMG: What happened with your management? I don’t know if you want to get into that or not. I know that other bands that I know had issues with the very same management company that you guys had.

Mary Z.: Yeah, that was so long ago already. We just decided that our old manager was not the manager for us. That’s not something that we talk about publicly that much because it would just sound like shit-talking. It’s not shit-talking it’s just about the fact that business-wise and goal-wise and things like that it just didn’t jive. We’ll just put it that way. It did not jive. So… So we just have been without a manager for a long time, since the album came out.. Since before the album came out.

AMG: And does self-managing work for you? Are you guys able to multitask that kind of stuff?

Mary Z.: Well we were always putting out indie releases and doing stuff before on our own, before we had label and management, agents, any of that kind of stuff. We did everything ourselves. So when we decided not to have management anymore we kinda thought “well, back to the same old.” The thing is that we’ve got very good relationships with a lot of people we work with in the music industry. So, there’s really no need for a manager at this point. There’s really no need for a liaison. We’ve been looking for other management but the thing is that until a manager can really show us that there’s something that they can offer us that we can’t do ourselves or that they’re going to put in as much effort as we’re going to put in, we’re not interested. Because a lot of people who want to manage bands want to just like say they manage a band and reply to a couple e-mails once in a while they’re not proactive. And we’re a proactive band always. So we need a manager who is as proactive and finding that is really hard. Until we find that we’re just going to do what we do.

AMG: But what does a manager offer a band that’s proactive aside from contacts?

Mary Z.: That’s there, too. But we don’t really have a need for that right now. We have those. There’s contacts but there’s also like, if you can get a good manager that has a good business sense, that’s rooted in the genre that you’re playing and they have contacts and connections they can work on your behalf to work with publicists, tour planners, other things and just sort of be the mouth for you. And make stuff happen. Also, it’s always good to have a neutral face when you’re dealing with people because the one thing that makes not having a manager hard is when you have to throw down and be like “No, this is not how we’re going to do it.” Then it’s the band that’s telling people, so it is good to have that buffer. There are some really good managers out there who can make shit happen. We’re just waiting to see. We’re not really actively pursuing it, you know if someone comes out of the wood work and they’re like “I’d like to manage your band.” We’ll consider it, see what’s going on. But we’re not actively looking because it’s really not needed at this point.

AMG: Are you guys going to be recording anything? Pumping out a demo for shopping or anything?

Mary Z.: Brian has been writing for months and we are going to be rehearsing. The people who have been pursuing us label-wise have been popping up and talking to us haven’t been asking for any demos at this point. I think what we have out there is enough to tell people what it’s like. But I think we want to record another album no matter what, like, Brian and I and everyone else are pretty much ready to get rehearsing again and get another album out. And whether that.. you know if a label wants to pick us up and put the money into it, great! If not, then we’re doing it ourselves like we did before and we’re just going to hire some people to help us with it and work with it and so it’s going to come out. We’d really like to this time around, no matter what the situation, no matter who we’re signed with or not signed with. We really want to put the album out in Europe which did not happen this last time.

AMG: What?! You guys didn’t get a European release!?

Mary Z.: Yeah, it never got released in Europe. It got released in North America and Japan.

AMG: How the hell did that happen? I would think that Europe would be priority?

Mary Z.: The rationale that I was told was that they were afraid that if they released it overseas and it didn’t catch on then people wouldn’t want order it on the second album. I don’t know if I agree with 100%, I can see where the logic comes from, but it doesn’t really matter at this point because it’s over. But now we have the freedom to either negotiate with a label and say “look, really want to focus on Europe and Japan and not focus on the United States.” That was a big part of the problem with this last album, a lot of the focus was pushed to the Americans, for advertising the press everything. The release. It’s just the wrong audience. The Canadians dig us, the Americans not so much. So only a certain percentage of North America is really willing to get on board with a new metal band, you know? And the Japanese are much more friendly. I’m very glad that we got released in Japan. I think that if we would’ve had a European shot it would’ve done a lot better.

AMG: Not to dwell on this but isn’t that what they did with Iced Earth, I mean that was the big deal, they took Iced Earth to Germany. Then they let the Germans go nuts over them and then they gave them four albums before they even produced a quality CD. And then they finally got good and then their cool vocalist quit…

Mary Z.: That’s the thing, Century Media has historically been very good with developing artists. Iced Earth is a great example of a time when they did that. I love a lot of the people that work there very dearly and a lot of them really put their best effort into the band, but the higher ups were not willing to reinvest. And it sucks. And I’m a little perturbed that it never got a European release. A great deal of our orders that would ship prior to signing go to Europe. I mean, a majority of them. Europe and Japan. To not be released in Europe at all really I don’t think ultimately helped us and with the ordering thing I can understand the logic but I think now that everything is more digital I don’t think that would matter. I don’t think it’s that much of a risk and wherever we go this next time or whatever we do. Europe is our focus, we’re going to push it hard over there, because that is where I think our audience is.

AMG: Sorry, I was really taken aback because I always assumed that if you guys were going to be marked anywhere it was going to be Germany, it was just the logical assumption… huh. Well, but personally do you have another projects in the works or are you just exploring stuff?

Mary Z.: I’m exploring stuff. I have a good friend of mine who wants to do an industrial project and help me do some vocals on that. The music is really terrific and I’m going to do that. It’s a project, a studio thing it’s one guy. It’s not like a touring thing. It’ll be cool to do that because I’ve never done an industrial project and there’s a lot of not-metal music that I’m really, really into. As far as like gothic, industrial music goes. That should be cool. I don’t know about everybody else in the band, what’s going on as far as their other projects. That’s all I have going on at the moment. There’s a couple female musicians, actually, my sister is an excellent guitarist and a female drummer that I met. I’d like to put something together with all women, not because of the cliché, but there are not a lot of metal bands that can play—besides the Iron Maidens [laughs] and Kittie, I think they can play pretty good whether you like them or not, I think you have to give them their props—where the bulk of the musicians are women. That might be an interesting experiment. But again, this is all secondary to Luna Mortis. I just want to like use some of the connections and things that I’ve been able to do as our careers develop. And Luna Mortis is still going to continue touring and everything as well, we’ve got this Primal Fear tour in May and we’re going to keep booking. I’m hoping that if we put something out overseas, again, I’m hoping that the majority of that will happen off the North American continent.

AMG: I’m assuming you saw Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. The whole thing on women in metal, I guess I should ask you this, what do you think of his conclusion about women getting more into metal and being more considered as equals in metal? Do you think that’s actually true as a female vocalist in a metal band who, for example, ended up in a calender?

Mary Z.: Well I think Sam Dunn should do a documentary on women in metal [laughs]. I love his documentaries, I love that and Flight 666. Here’s the thing man, I always pretty much get my respect as a musician. I very rarely get the “you’re a chick in a band, you’re a novelty” type of treatment. Most of the people in the metal scene, especially the people that have seen our live shows and seen that yes this does work live and we are a band and I can pull this shit off live. Especially those people, they treat me with all the respect in the world. I don’t think that metal is an intentionally sexist genre, I think metalheads are pretty broad thinking people and I think that most of them will give you a shot. If you can play you can play if you can sing you can sing. And it doesn’t really matter to a lot of them if you’re a woman or a man. Some people prefer listening to one or the other and that’s just an aural aesthetic type of thing. I get that. But I think that if you can do it you can do it. And people in the metal scene just respect musicianship and that’s the most important part. There are some exceptions, right. I think some people use it as a gimmick. Bands that use it as a gimmick where the chick sucks at what she’s doing kind of ruin it for some of us that kinda take it back a couple steps. I think that as long as you get up there and have confidence and you are good at what you do and you are serious about it and you can get up there and contend with any of the guys in the scene than you should not have a problem. Look at Doro, people don’t think of Doro as a gimmick even though she was one of the very first people to do it because Doro kicks ass.

AMG: What do you think about the double standard that women in metal must be attractive, particularly women in bands? I mean, metal dudes aren’t exactly the most attractive men out there if you’re outside of Sweden where they’re incredibly pretty. But if you’re anywhere else they tend to be paunchy, bearded, balding. I mean think about Devin Townsend for example…

Mary Z.: I think Devin Townsend is sexy, but not because of the way he looks, because of his music.

AMG: It’s the skullet that does it for me.. [laughs]

Mary Z.: He shaved that off now.

AMG: Oh did he? I saw SYL open for Meshuggah a few years back and I was duly impressed with his skullet.

Mary Z.: Dude, he’s like one of my all-time favorite musicians.

AMG: But the double-standard though, don’t you think there’s a pretty major double standard there?

Mary Z.: I would agree with that for sure. I like to be feminine, I mean, unfortunately my genetics are my genetics and I’m hardwired to like dudes, so I like being feminine. And I like being sexy at times so I try to keep a little bit of that when I’m playing and I understand that there is that double standard. Because you can be like the fattest, ugliest dude and get up there and nobody cares. But if you’re a chick you’d better not be a fat, ugly chick, I mean yeah I get that. And that does suck. But I think that is not necessarily a metal standard for women, I think that’s a societal standard for women because I can’t think.. The only band I know of any genre that has any success with a pretty stereotypically unnatractive woman, meaning like what society is unattractive is Gossip and she’s like enormous, she’s like 400 pounds. She’s very beautiful in the face but, it’s hard to break out of what society should be beautiful for all women. Not just in metal. I think that pressure falls on all women and you need to meet a certain aesthetic. I mean, people, plastic surgery everything. It’s just a world standard, I think dudes in any band can probably be somewhat ugly and get away with it. Does that make sense?

AMG: Yeah, yeah, I think you’re probably right. But you don’t think that the standard gets sort of.. becomes a bit more extreme in what could be seen as the very hyper-masculine aspects of heavy metal?

Mary Z: No, I mean, no I don’t think so. I actually think it’s more lenient in metal. I think that people are willing to accept a little bit more dirt and grime. Like on tour when I haven’t changed my clothes for three days because I’ve just kept playing shows and passing out in the van and playing shows again, and my hair is greasy and even though I still have makeup on and I still look like me, I’m not a super model. [laughs] So, I think they’re willing to accept that, I think that might even be more badass. I think there are a lot of particularly glamorous metal sings, I think.. Simone Simons [Epica], Tarja Turunen [ex-Nightwish], there is a lot of glamorous metal singers but then you also have your ones that just came in their t-shirt and jeans like Anneke [van Giersbergen] from The Gathering you know?

AMG: It’s interesting to think about, though, because either you put chicks on a pedestal in metal ’cause they’re a chick in metal, or you accept them as one of the dudes. And then in that sense then you de-sexualize them.

Mary Z.: Right, I mean, I get both reactions from people.

AMG: But how do you deal with it? I mean, in a lot of people’s minds metal is still a masculine thing. So there’s almost no way to deal with it…

Mary Z.: Well, sometimes I think it’s humorous. [Laughs] Sometimes I laugh and think “man I scream into a microphone for a living.” Sometimes it’s just funny. Not because it’s masculine or feminine but just ’cause it’s ridiculous to scream into a microphone sometimes. All metal is funny, like.. all the time. Anyway, some days it is hard, I mean some days you just wanna punch people. I mean, when you’re out on the road and stuff and security dudes, people who aren’t in the know, just people at the venues who won’t let you in because they think you’re just a roadie, or that you’re not with the band because it’s a metal show. You just get so fucking tired of it. I’ve fucking elbowed security guards and pushed through ‘em, it’s not a good thing.. but I get really tired of it. That gets old.. that does get old. You feel like sometimes you constantly have to be asserting yourself like with this badass “get the fuck out of my way” type of attitude. Some days it gets a little salty because you’ve gotta put that on a lot. Everyone thinks that you’re a groupy. But little do people know that if metalheads could get laid they would have groupies.. [laughs] but since they can’t… the girl is most likely a musician. I’m just being funny.. or maybe I’m not.

AMG: No, no, you’re not.

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And that was about it. A little small-talk, but I concluded the interview there because of the long and tedious task of transcribing these things. I, of course, wish the band best of luck in the future and recommend that everyone go and check out their debut CD from their former label: The Absence and hopefully it’ll get a European release at some point.

Like this review or article? Hate advertisements? Buy me a beer to show your appreciation for it (and to keep me too drunk to sign the advertising contracts). $5 for a glass and $10.00 for a pitcher are my helpful suggestions.

To say that The 11th Hour‘s Ed Warby has done a couple of things in his musical career would be a pretty major understatement. From his early days in legendary Dutch death metallers Gorefest to his current band Hail of Bullets and exceptional doom metal project The 11th Hour, to being prog legend Arjen Lucassen‘s go to guy on drums, he has constantly involved himself in excellent projects. These days he’s investing all his time and money into making awesome records and having fun, apparently. Lucky stiff…

Anyway, this was also a new experience for me because it was quite possibly the longest interview I ever did. We started exchanging messages at about 2:30 PM and ended at around midnight. It turned out to be an extraordinarily extensive interview, and I didn’t even cover everything I would have liked to. I hope that you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

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AMG: Let’s start with the new The 11th Hour record that you just put out: explain what you wanted to get across with the concept of a guy dying of lung cancer and reliving his past. And why doom?

Warby: Actually it’s not cancer. The inspiration for this part of the story comes from the death of my parents, both suffered from lung emphysema caused by heavy smoking. It’s a very brutal lung disease that slowly breaks down the lungs’ capacity for processing oxygen. You can still breathe in and out, but you need supplemental oxygen to prevent asphyxiation. It’s part hereditary and my sister also suffers from it, I only had bronchitis as a kid but since I never smoked my lungs are OK these days. Originally I didn’t plan to get this personal, but during the writing process it felt right to invest some of my own grief into the lyrics. I think the fact that it deals with real emotions (even though the back story is entirely made up) greatly enhances the album’s impact, a lot of people can relate to this since we’ve all lost a loved one at some point. I didn’t want to get all weepy though, so we chose to go for brutal realism in the lyrics. I also wanted to portray this in the promotional pictures we did, my sister fortunately shares my black sense of humour and she actually lent me her oxygen tube for realism’s sake. The album’s in fact dedicated to her.

Why doom? I’ve always loved doom ever since I first heard Trouble and Candlemass back in the 80’s, but drumming in a doom band never seemed too attractive. A few years ago I started playing guitar and in that position it’s tremendously enjoyable to create this ultra-heavy, slow, monolithic music. I also have a preference for anything dark ‘n gloomy, be it films, music, art, literature, so this is a way to put that to good use. I’m very much into death metal, but doom moves me in a completely different way and I feel very comfortable within the musical idiom.

AMG: Oi, my condolences, man. That’s rough. I guess that also explains the very realistic sense of grief that shows up throughout the album, though. What’s the quote? “We write what we know.”

But, while slow and monolithic the music doesn’t seem to ever be really hyper-repetitive or boring. During the writing process did you focus a lot on riff construction or song construction? What came first for you, the riffs or song concept?

Warby: Thanks, it’s already been a long time though. My dad passed away in 1995, just as I was about to enter the studio for Gorefest‘s Soul Survivor, my mom died 4 years later. Doesn’t mean I don’t miss them still, my dad especially played a big part in my musical career and they both supported me as much as they could.

Even before I started writing my own riffs I’ve always been involved in putting the songs together and arranging them, that was basically my job with Gorefest in the past. With The 11th Hour I usually start with a riff or theme, and see where it takes me. For Gorefest and to a lesser extent Hail Of Bullets I try to stick to an almost poppy song structure, but for this I allowed myself a little more freedom as far as structure goes. “One Last Smoke” still has a very traditional song structure, but “Origins Of Mourning” or “Weep For Me” are all over the place. I tried to employ a lot of different “colours” to keep the songs interesting despite their epic length. The only part where I used a really repetitive riff on purpose is at the end of “In The Silent Grave”. Once I start working on a song I do usually have an idea of the shape I want, but if I get carried away it might end up quite different. “Origins Of Mourning” wasn’t supposed to be this long for instance, I just kept getting cool ideas to add and all of a sudden I had this 11 minute behemoth on my hands.

AMG: And are you writing lyrics and music at the same time? Or does one come before the other?

Warby: Music comes first, always. I’ll determine where I want clean vocals, where growls, and then I usually make up something silly to see how many and what kind of lines are needed and then we take it from there. More often than not I already have some kind of image in my head that either inspired the music or is in turn inspired by it, and from that I make a general outline for Rogga so he can work his magic. He’ll write down whatever pops into his head and I pick the stuff that inspires me and add my own lines until we have an actual lyric. It’s a great way of working, I’d never written lyrics before but with Rogga’s inspiration it came quite naturally.

AMG: How’d you come to decide on Rogga as a vocalist for this record? Why not do the growls yourself since you did everything else yourself…

Warby: I can’t do a decent growl to save my life… and Rogga’s one of my favorite growlers, so that was an easy decision. On the pre-production demos I did some kind of whisper-growl, which is pretty pathetic but effective for working out vocal arrangements. Rogga’s a monster though, it’s exactly the kind of voice I wanted for this. He can do all kinds of growls, but I really wanted a deep, booming growl from hell and I think he delivered masterfully. Rogga’s a really modest guy, and many times he wondered why I chose him instead of “someone more famous”, but to me he was instrumental in how this album turned out.

AMG: Interesting. So you didn’t think about getting anyone else? Or was he pretty much the first person who popped into your mind? Where did you guys record his vocals? Did he come down to The Netherlands to record or did he record in Sweden?

Warby: No, the thought never occurred to me. I was already a fan of his vocals from the first Demiurg album (and I considered it a great honor when he asked me to play drums on the 2nd) so I never really considered anyone else.

He recorded his vocals in Sweden, in a cabin in the woods if he’s to be believed. He’s used to recording his own voice from all his other projects, so that worked out fine.

AMG: Nice. Cabin in the woods definitely fits! I’d say you made the right choice, though, ’cause his vocals are excellent. The recording of this record is interesting ’cause basically you demoed it at home, right? Let’s talk a little bit about your set-up and how you’re doing this stuff. First, instruments: what kind of guitars and cabs are you using?

Warby: I didn’t just demo it at home, I recorded the whole album except for the drums at home. When I started this project about a year and a half ago I didn’t even have a guitar of my own except for the Squier strat my sister bought for me. Paul from Hail Of Bullets lent me his Ibanez 7 string so I could work out some tunes, and I used this to write and record embryonic versions of the 6 songs that ended up comprising Burden Of Grief.

Once I got serious about actually making an album I figured I’d need a guitar of my own so I started a rather ill-informed quest for the right axe. As a drummer I didn’t know much about this alien instrument and I ended up making a few bad choices along the way. First guitar I bought was a Gibson Les Paul Studio, thinking it’d be in the same league as the Standards the guys in Gorefest play. Wrong. The thing wouldn’t be tuned down to B, no matter what I (and the insanely expensive luthier I took it to) tried. So I sold that and got an Epiphone Les Paul Standard instead. Awesome guitar, I used it for 2 solo’s on the album, but it didn’t have the rhythm sound I was looking for so I got an Epiphone SG Prophecy. Liked the EMG’s in it, loved its playability but in the end it also had tuning issues (which show up most brutally once you start multi-tracking rhythm parts), so I started looking for yet another option. Ibanez was up next, due to good experiences with Paul’s guitar. I tried an RG with fixed bridge (I once tried to replace strings on a guitar with a floating bridge, still wake up screaming from that experience) and a 7 string (replaced the stock PU’s with DiMarzio’s), recorded basically the whole album and decided it didn’t sound right, so back to the drawing board once more. I had by then become convinced I should use a 7 string and as a last resort I got myself a Schecter Hellraiser after reading good things about it. Once I held it in my hands it felt like coming home, perfect tuning, fat sound, awesome playability, gorgeous looks, simply perfect! By a incredible stroke of luck I got in touch with the German distributor and they actually offered me an endorsement deal, so now I own 4 of these beauties and I’m positive I’ll never need another guitar ever again.

As for cabs: none. I record in Protools using a Pod for reference and a separate DI track for re-amping purposes. For the mix we used the Peavey 6505 setting in Peavey’s own Revalver amp simulator program, and we combined this with Recabinet speaker simulation (classic 4×12 Greenback setting).

Next time I’ll use a stronger computer so I can run these plug-ins real time while recording, that way I can leave the Pod out of the equation and just record DI.

AMG: Holy shit. So you basically recorded this whole thing with emulated sound? The bass as well, I take it? How about the vocals? How did you record your cleans? Do you have good rooms for this kind of recording? Did you build yourself a “vocal booth” at home? How’d that work for you?

Warby: Yep, everything including the bass. Credit for that awesome bass sound (and the rest of the awesome sounds for that matter) must go to Ronnie, not sure what he used on it but it sounds incredible! I played everything on a pretty basic 4 string Yamaha, next time I’ll use a Schecter 5 string bass for sure.

For the demo I sang through a Shure SM58 lent to me by Excess studios, but for the album I invested in a Shure SM7B vocal mic, awesome thing that is. It’s been used most famously by Michael Jackson on Thriller, guess you can hear that in my “hee-hee’s”… To create some kind of vocal booth I added a mic screen similar to those made by ES, only cheaper. My room sucks for it, but with this I was able to get a good vocal sound, and Ronnie’s EQ wizardry took care of the rest. I must say the vocals caused me more trouble than I thought, it’s a very self-conscious thing to record yourself and judge your own takes objectively. I have a tendency to do way too many takes (a bad drumming habit) and it can be a bitch to edit those together into a cohesive vocal. Funny detail: Ronnie insisted on using Pitch Perfect, an auto-tune program, on my vocals and I came out sounding like Cher on that horrible “Believe” song. Fortunately we didn’t have to use it cause my pitch was fine without…

AMG: By Ronnie you mean Ronnie Björnström who did the mix, right? How’d you get hooked up with him? And how does that work? Do you send a thumb drive or something? Because you basically tracked the whole thing at home, then, used all those different tracks and the sent the tracks off to Björnström?

Warby: Yep, Ronnie Björnström of Enhanced Audio Productions. Rogga hooked me up with him since he mixes about 90% of all his stuff and he also plays with Rogga in Bone Gnawer. Great guy, and very talented. I sent Ronnie a DVD with all the drum files by mail, the rest was done digitally through sprend.se. That way I could keep working on the songs while he was already mixing, an incredible luxury without which I wouldn’t have been able to finish the album on time. I sent him some test guitar- and bass files so he could set up an early mix, and then we fleshed out the songs with additional parts as I went along. The advantage of mixing during instead of after recording is that you’ll hear right away if a part is working or not and you can go back and change it, something that was impossible before. The last week was extremely hectic though, I’d ran out of time so I had to pull several almost all-nighters to get the job done, and consequently so did Ronnie. I think we put the final touches on the mix at 6.00 in the morning, when the sun was already coming up…

AMG: So, if it’s OK to ask, do you just pretty much self-fund all your equipment? I’m assuming you’ve got a pretty decent job, or are you actually able to live off your multiple projects?

Warby: All the money I make goes right back into equipment usually. Having endorsements helps a lot, but there’s always stuff I have to buy like everybody else. During the 90s I lived only off my musical activities, but times have changed and I also don’t want to have to depend on it, takes the fun out of it somehow… so nowadays I make music because I enjoy it, and this enables me to do exactly what I want, when I want, without the pressure of having to do an x number of shows or studio jobs every month to survive.

So yes, I have a decent job and I have my music to keep me sane and provide me with a nice bonus every now and then.

AMG: Speaking of the 90s, you guys called it quit with Gorefest again in June. Rumor has it you guys discovered porn. Would you care to extrapolate a bit on that?

Warby: Well, once you discover porn it takes up all your time really, doesn’t it?

No seriously, we’d run into the same brick wall of interpersonal and musical indifference that we did in the 90′s and there wasn’t much sense in continuing. We had no inspiration for a new album, we didn’t particularly enjoy each others company anymore and I just can’t function creatively in an environment like that. I wrote about 75% of Rise To Ruin because I really believed in the band, and I’m still extremely proud of that album, but it’s a tough act to follow and I/we couldn’t muster that kind of dedication for a second time. As long as there’s a common goal you can be literally indestructible as a band, but once the cracks start to (re-)appear it’s amazing how fast a band falls apart.

AMG: So you guys just made a clean break for it?  How’d that play with the honchos at Nuclear Blast? Were you done with your contractual obligations?

Warby: No idea, haven’t heard a word from them since so that says it all, doesn’t it? Too busy promoting the new Nightwish I guess… as far as I know we didn’t have any contractual obligations, just an unfinished option for the next album.

AMG: Ah-ha. Well, I guess it could’ve been worse… How about Hail of Bullets? How’d your involvement in that band come about? And why’d you guys decide to do an MCD with lots of live tracks instead of holding off for a new full length?

Warby: Sometime in 2004 Stephan approached me with the idea of starting an old school death metal band together, but then the Gorefest reunion came along and I just didn’t have time anymore. In 2007 the idea came up again and this time we managed to set-up a “band meeting” (i.e.: obscene drinking spree) with the 5 guys Steph had in mind for this. We got along famously and the next morning we took our first “band pics” in Theo’s garden (you can still see those on our MySpace, 5 guys with a massive hangover and big plans), a few months later we made our first promo that led to the deal with Metal Blade records. It’s a real fun band to be in, we’re just 5 death metal freaks playing exactly the kind of shit we’d want to hear ourselves.

The new album will not be out until May 2010 at the earliest, so we and Metal Blade thought it’d be a good idea to show a small sign of life by way of an EP. I still had the plan to do a “Nachthexen II” like Bolt Thrower do with that awesome “World Eater” riff so this turned into “Liberators” (the aviation theme and the first riff are the only connections to the original “Nachthexen”, but it’s close enough) and Steph wrote “Warsaw Rising” which ended up being the title track. “Destroyer” was already part of our live set, and the remaining 3 tracks were from our Party.san show, the 3rd show in our existence if I’m not mistaken. The new tracks were written specifically for this EP and will not appear on the next album, so it’s a neat little in-between I think.

AMG: That’s cool, then. You mentioned at one point that you’re planning on producing the next Hail of Bullets record. Is that all going to be done in your house again?

Warby: Yep! We already did the studio tracks of the EP almost entirely at my place, same as Burden Of Grief except the vocals were done at Excess. The way Martin screams I’d have the cops beating down my door in no time…

We just got a new workstation and some heavier recording gear so as soon as this is up and running we’ll start pre-production. Producing is a big word, but I do all recording, engineering and editing as well as coaxing the best takes out of the guys, everything except mixing really (although being the über-perfectionist that I am I usually have a big hand in that as well). Dan will of course be doing that again, he’s already done 8 remixes of Warsaw Rising in preparation for it, the guy gives new meaning to the word “workaholic”…

It’ll be a helluva job, but I like the fact that we’re in total control instead of having to rely on people that may not really understand what we’re trying to do. On Of Frost And War we had an engineer that wanted to clean up all the string noises, which to me is what makes a guitar take come alive, I had to fight tooth and nail to re-instate those little “imperfections” instead of ending up with a perfect but lifeless album.

AMG: Nothing quite so metal as a confrontation with the police over your vocal takes! What do you prefer, though, working with the other members or doing stuff by yourself? I know you’ve got some do-it-yourself pride…

Warby: “You’re torturing a man, we can hear him screaming!”  “No honestly, we’re recording an album!”

That totally depends on the project. Hail Of Bullets is a band and I enjoy it tremendously as such, whereas The 11th Hour is meant to be a personal project (in the studio at least) and I can’t imagine doing this any other way than strictly DIY. And I do take pride in finishing an album all by myself, especially since lots of people thought I had finally gone completely insane in my delusions of grandeur, but I also take pride in delivering a collective effort such as the Warsaw Rising EP. It’s all good!

AMG: I know that you’re Dutch.. you don’t happen to live near Den Haag do you? That kind of answer gives me the idea that your “good job” is working as a diplomat for the world court.. Haha.. So, now I gotta ask you: where does Ayreon fit into all of this? Are you just a hired gun for that project or are you actually a part of the “band”?

Warby: Haha, that diplomatic eh?

It’s true though, different dynamics, both equally enjoyable. But no, I don’t work in Den Haag although I live close by (about 15 minutes by train). Politics are not for me, I’m far too impulsive…

The first Ayreon album I did was Into The Electric Castle and me and Arjen got along so well he’s been asking me back ever since, even though he rarely works with the same people twice. This year’s Guilt Machine is a notable exception of course, and he actually called me before he started working on it to say he wasn’t going to ask me this time. When I heard who he had in mind for it and why I couldn’t blame him. Chris Maitland is a fantastic drummer and playing quietly isn’t my strong point. But apart from this I do feel like I’m Arjen’s drummer of choice for most of his projects. I was there for the Star One tour (one of the most unforgettable experiences of my career) and I’m sure we’ll work together again in the (hopefully near) future.

AMG: Yeah, sorry, but it was a damn diplomatic answer. I always want musicians to say things like “those jackasses? Well, I only work with them ’cause it’s the only way to get things done!” You never make any news with diplomatic answers…

As a side note, I’m a huge fan of that Guilt Machine record. It’s a shame you weren’t involved, then I could go all geeky fanboy on you about it. I think it might be one of Arjen’s best works to-date.

I guess I’m going to bring this back around to The 11th Hour again. I know the record just came out, but what are your plans with it? You planning on doing some touring? And are you interested in doing another one eventually or was this kind of a one-time deal thing that’s gonna get stuck on a shelf ’cause you’re spread to thin with projects?

Warby: Sorry to disappoint you, but Hail Of Bullets is a surprisingly solid and fun band! We’ve been together for over 2 years but it feels like 2 months, and whenever we’re on stage people always comment on how much fun we seem to be having, it’s sickening really…

I like the Guilt Machine album a lot too, Arjen sent me a copy (I just sent him a copy of mine) and I think it’s brilliant. Then again I’m sure whatever he does next will be brilliant too, I’m insanely proud of my history with him and before he asked me to be a part of his universe “working with Arjen” was at the top of my musical wish list.

As far as I’m concerned there will definitely be another 11th Hour album, and the show we did 2 weeks ago was so much fun it’s scary… I was worried I’d be too nervous to enjoy being on stage as guitarist/vocalist but it felt awesome and I can’t wait to do it again! The booking agency that does Hail Of Bullets is now representing The 11th Hour as well, so we’ll see what happens. It also helps to have 2 guys from Officium Triste in the band since they’re more at home in the doom scene than I am and know all the right promoters and festivals.

In fact I’m already working on the next album, so far I have 4 finished songs and ideas for another 3-4. As soon as Hail Of Bullets is done I’ll start working on it for real, I’ll just have to make time I guess.

AMG: Nice, I think we’ll wrap it up there! I gotta say I’m looking forward to all the new stuff you’re going to be working on. And you’ve been a sporting good chap about this whole thing. I say we rendezvous after the next Hail of Bullets for an update. Thanks a lot!

Warby: You’re very welcome, thank you for letting me ramble on! And I didn’t even mention that new Demiurg we’ll be doing next year…

AMG: Oh shit! I forgot to ask about that. That’s ’cause I haven’t heard that project, so I ashamedly must admit that I know nothing about it… Feel free to promote it here and now!

Warby: Demiurg is Rogga’s baby, I like to think of it as the Rolls Royce among his bands as it’s a far classier affair than the atavistic down ‘n dirty death metal he’s known for (not that there’s anything wrong with that mind you). Last year we released The Hate Chamber, which I’m very proud of. Since crossing “working with Arjen” from my list “participating in classic Swedish death metal album” was at the #1 spot, and as far as I’m concerned that was it. I don’t know where Rogga’s going with the next album but he has some great plans for it, so I can’t wait to hear what he comes up with.

AMG: Nice. So in other words: look forward to next year ’cause it’s going to be a pretty kick ass year for you? New Demiurg, new Hail of Bullets… working on The 11th Hour stuff. You’re living the dream man, best of luck..

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Trevor from The Black Dahlia Murder is the first person I’ve ever interviewed more than once.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember that.  When I talked to him, the guys were a start up band from Detroit that was soon going into the studio to record Miasma a record that went over, well, remarkably well.  So well, in fact, that The Black Dahlia Murder has basically become one of the biggest American names in death metal.  Their third record Nocturnal did even better on the charts than Miasma did, and I suspect that Deflorate will make the last two look silly.

With that in mind, it still blows my mind that these guys are still reviled by so many metalheads.  I talk about that, the new record, what he’d like to say to all the kids downloading his new record and obscure death metal.  Fun?  I thought so.

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AMG: Let’s jump right into this, it’s been like 6 years since you guys released Unhallowed and last time I talked to you you’d only been to Europe once.  How’s it going over there?  How are you guys doing in the European market?

Trevor: It’s been really good, man.  It’s been picking up quite a bit.  We’ve been getting there a lot, you know, we go there a couple times a year.  Usually try to hit the festival circuits in the summer if we can.  It’s been cool, it’s been similar to the States, it’s just a little bit behind still.  We’re definitely excited to be going back there.  Especially seeing as how bands definitely seem to generate longevity over there, they just keep coming and keep their fans happy.  That’s pretty much what we plan to do, you know, so I’m excited to see what’s going to happen in the long run, but yeah man, it’s been a very, very cool evolution.

AMG: When are you guys coming over here next then?

Trevor: We’ll be back in January for this tour called Bone Crusher which is like this tour that was dreamt up by us and our booking agent, Mark at Avacado.  It’s sort of like a traveling fest, it’s us, 3 Inches of Blood, Necrophobic who I absolutely love, I can’t wait to see.  Ingested from the UK they’re cool and they were one of our suggestions.  Obscura they’re awesome.  So yeah, it should be really cool and a little bit varied, you know.

AMG: But first you’ve got a couple legs of an American tour?

Trevor: Yeah, we have uh, we’re living in a couple days for Children of Bodom and Skeletonwitch which is actually mostly Canadian but there’s some American dates. And then we roll right into another tour with Skeletonwitch, which features Toxic Holocaust and Trap Them.  That’ll be the whole US.  So yeah, we have a lot on our plate as usual, I think more so on this tour cycle than ever, it’s going to be really, really, jam packed with dates.

AMG: When we had talked before you had said that you had been home like two weeks out of the year or something, is that the kind of schedule that you still have?  You put out a record, tour like maniacs and go back into the studio right away?

Trevor: Yeah, it usually adds up to 8 or 9 months altogether that we’re gone.  It’s a little bit spread out.  It’s usually a little time at home, just enough to stay sane.  This while coming up is looking pretty brutal, we have 2 months straight in the van between those two tours because we don’t get to go home in between and that’s a test of sanity right there, pretty much.

AMG: Yeah, I’ll bet.  Does that have anything to do with the member swapping that’s been happening?

Trevor: That has a lot to do with it actually.  People that just can’t commit to being a camper their entire life, you know.  And I can understand.  But another thing is just the amount of dedication, the amount of dedication to the person’s respective instrument.  You gotta be on top of the ball, especially in the drumming department, you know, to play how we wanna play live.  It takes a lot of upkeep you know.  Also, you know, a lot of people have gone through the band because they just couldn’t keep their egos in check.  There’s a lot of people complementing you all the time when you’re in a band.  You gotta keep focused and being the best at your instrument.  The main goal is to play a perfect show.  If we play a perfect show, you know, or play the best we can and it’s tight, has balls, then the rest falls into place.  Then we can be happy campers, you know.  That’s kind of our mantra.  I think now that we’re older and now that we have a really successful thing going we get to choose from the best of the best to come in and play in our band, you know.  We’re not picking people that we know from the neighborhood in Michigan anymore.  Now we got to shop around for these guys.  Shannon has just been an amazing drummer and an amazing asset to this band.  Just having him behind us… it gives us the confidence to be the band that we’re supposed to be, you know.  We need to know that we’re going to be faced playing at these high speeds on stage, we need to know that he’s always going to be there to back us up.   Now that we have that confidence I think that we’re even stronger as a force than ever.  Bring Ryan in, you know, he’s on that same level of professionality [sic] you know, he’s an awesome player, he definitely brings our leads up to the next plateau on this new album, and he also contributed to the writing of this album.  Which was cool, because he wasn’t really in the picture for that long.  But you know, he felt comfortable with us.   And we brought him in with the idea that he was going to write songs and be a part of the band, and it’s worked out great.  He’s been sort of a breath of life into everything.  The rest of us have been tu

nnel-visioning on this band for a long time, you know what I mean, I’ve spent 8 years where this was my main focus and now we’re just surrounded by like-minded guys.  It’s like a new dawn for us because we have Ryan contributing to writing, Bart our bass player actually co-wrote two songs.  It’s like we have a whole new canon of people who are writing and it took the pressure off of Brian, you know, he was our sole writer for most of the material on most of the albums.  Even though it’s our fourth album, I feel like we really hit our stride with the last one, you know, like it wasn’t kids stuff anymore.  ’Cause when we met I was a kid, you know.  Now I’m almost 30, time’s flying but we’ve been having a lot of fun the whole way.

AMG: But at the same time, Deflorate is definitely still The Black Dahlia Murder it’s not like you guys are exactly branching out in a lot of new progressive directions.  Do you think that we’ll see more experimentation on future records, or have you nailed that sound that you want?

Trevor: We try to do both.  We realize our strengths.  And our sound has been realized as far as we’re concerned, you know, and we try to do technical things and we played in so many time signatures that we’ve never touched on this album.  We try give the songs their own identity and I think they’re a little bit stronger in that way on this album than on any previously.  So, you know, it’s kind of like we try to keep a good balance of everything.  We try to write concise death metal songs that have a catchy song structure and strong choruses, you know that’s always been our thing.  But we try to keep going as a band and keep the fans coming along with us, you know what I mean, so, it’s definitely our sound, it’s definitely more recognizable as us, but it is more technical, there are moments that are faster than ever and then there are some songs that are pulled back a little bit like “Necropolis,” just letting the melodies and the catchiness do the talking.  We just want to ride that fence and not do anything too drastic, you know, sometimes change, it scares people, you know what I mean?  It’s not like we’re going to go start singing or something.  And I think that now that we’re at our fourth record I think people are starting to see us, hopefully, our fans are starting to see us as an institution, something that they can depend on.  They know that it’s never going to like pussy out on them or anything.  Any of those opportunities that we’ve had and anything that we’ve been lucky enough to do, we’ve done without compromising our music in anyway.  We do what we want to do and we’ve been lucky to have these great opportunities and stuff, so we’re just going to keep on doing it and hope that people will stick with us, and hope we can survive the changing of time in the way that Cannibal Corpse has.  There’s been the rise and fall of death metal and now it’s coming back full swing in the US.  In Europe it’s a little bit different, ’cause you know the fabric of the underground is very, very rich with history.  You guys have a lot more big festivals and I think metal is a little bit more readily available in Europe.

AMG: It seems like it’s never been a trend, like it’s been more of a consistent underground in places.

Trevor: In the States it’s kind of lame, you know what I mean.  If it’s going to be like every other trend in the states then I guess it’s going to eventually taper off.  Right now it’s really hot, in the States.  We just want to survive the changing of times and hopefully all these young fans that are into us will, you know, will grow up metalheads and will still stick with us and stick with metal.

AMG: Actually, I was going to say, apropos death metal I think it’s pretty interesting because when you guys first came out pretty much everyone was trying to say that you were metalcore because you don’t look like death metal guys, and now, even though you guys play melodic death metal (you pretty much sound like At The Gates with blast beats), but now it’s like the deathcore thing.  Why do you think that nobody wants to call you death metal?

Trevor: I think they’re scared.  They have their own… look, metal, I love it, I love the shit out of it, I’ve loved it for fucking almost 20 years now.  But it has its own sets of rules and codes and it has its own safety zones, you know what I mean?  They see us with short hair and they just want to put us in another box.  They won’t except that I have a bigger CD collection than them.  [Laughter]  It has it’s own trappings I guess.  The way I saw metal was that this is an escape from the world, the escape from reality.  Like this secret society of people who have this greater understanding, you know what I mean?  I don’t know where trying to keep everybody out of this picture really came into this, you know, I think the more metalheads we can find the more people that are into metal the better.  Because frankly, as a whole… I don’t understand..

AMG: Yeah, but then it’s not exclusive, dude, it’s not exclusive..  If there’s a group of kids.. I don’t know, when I was at school I was one of four guys who liked metal if there had been 25 I wouldn’t have been special.

Trevor: [Laughs] Yeah, but It’s the music of the underground, so I don’t understand why we don’t have a home with those people.   I guess in a way it’s given us another challenge, you know, another occasion to rise to.  To prove to these people.  If they hear the music they can’t deny it.

AMG: But dude, they can, I mean, they do it.  You’ll read for example people comparing bands that don’t sound anything like you guys to you because that is sort of an image of something that is trendy and not metal.

Trevor: But I think a lot of this comes from.. I think it’s half people that just look at the band and haven’t heard it who may even like the band, but they just profile us as metalcore and never check it out.  And then there are kids that are very young and coming in and I think they see a lot of bands that maybe…  There are a lot of young bands influenced by this band that kind of take it and put a ton of breakdowns in it, you know.  So I guess that for a young kid, I guess it seems like we’re in the same category as a lot of this deathcore bands because of a lack of awareness.

AMG: That you guys don’t use breakdowns…

Trevor: Yeah, or that we’re influenced by a whole different set of music.  It’s hard to pinpoint really.  Having all these different genres and whatever, every time our name is mentioned on the internet there follows like a 55 page genre battle.  [Laughs] But I think having all these different genres and things like that, that people can put us in has kind of given us the ability to play with all different kinds of bands, you know.  We play with hardcore bands, we play with metalcore bands, we play with black/death bands everything in between.  It’s made us more versatile, I think.  It’s been a blessing in disguise.   At first I used to be really anal about it and get kind of butt hurt about it, but I don’t really care anymore.  It’s basically ignorance that’s put us in these different categories, so it’s like “fuck it man, what can I do?”  You can’t change everybody’s mind in the world.  As long as they’re talking about the band.  I don’t care what they’re calling us as long as they’re calling us.  I think, too that Nocturnal was kind of a big step in clearing our name to some of the more elite types.  They see the artwork they can at least make the association, you know, having Necrolord artwork and stuff like that, maybe that was kind of a foot in the door to get them to catch on.  And I’ve got high hopes for this one, too.  That whole thing, I don’t spend too much time even worrying about that anymore.

AMG: Tell me about your new DVD.

Trevor: All the DVD’s I’ve bought of bands, I just watch once if I can even get through it.  You know, it’s usually just one concert shot from a few angles, by the third or fourth song you’ve pretty much just seen everything and you’re like “Oh, OK.”  And if there’s an interview it’ll usually be something really corny and not too informational.   I don’t know.  We just had this idea that we wanted to do a DVD our way, you know?  And a lot of it is just joking around and it just kind of shows you what tour is like.  There’s a whole segment on how to pee in a bottle [laughs].  It’s just shit like that that shows the humanity of the band and shows the kind of shit that we endure.  People look at our band, like.. sometimes kids ask us like “You guys are fucking rich, man!” or like “Why don’t you have Metal Blade buy you a bus?”  And we’re like “Wow, you know so little about what’s going on, I don’t have a whole day to explain it to you.”  So, I don’t know it’s kinda funny man.  We have kind of a unique vibe in our band asfar as I can see, we’re all friends and we have a good time.  We have a great time.  And even though we’ve had members come through this band, they were always you know friends.  Like friends from home.  And the guys we have are our friends now, one of our abilities—to have this much strength and to tour this relentlessly—is just our bond, you know, we have such a great time doing all this shit.  You can really see that in the DVD, that we have something unique going.  I think, it’s taken on its own life, you know.  A lot of people have been talking to me about it.  Some people have been turned onto the band I think through the DVD.  Like, the poop and pee jokes are the hook and then they find out about the music.  [More laughter abounds]

AMG: Did you ever see Type O Negative‘s After Dark?

Trevor: No, man.  I’ve never seen it.

AMG: That’s like the only band video that I’ve ever seen that really sounds anything like that.  It was basically a big fucking joke, t

hey got money from the label and then they just made asses of themselves.

Trevor: Yeah, that’s awesome.

AMG: Like you said, it was the only one of those videos that you can sit through, ’cause the rest of ‘em.. are just “Eh.”

Trevor: The Pantera DVD, that’s awesome.

AMG: I never saw it.

Trevor: They just fuck around, man, it’s awesome.

AMG: OK, yeah, another one is Iron Maiden‘s Rock in Rio, that was really good, too.

Trevor: I mean, some concerts are just great.  I mean, Rock in Rio that is just that show is amazing.  Everyone singing “Fear of

the Dark,” I mean, that is the shit.

AMG: I mean, could you imagine standing in front of that many people?

Trevor: No.  [Laughs] That’s gotta be quite a feeling.  I mean, I get good vibes when I’m standing in front of just a normal show, if it’s going well.  I can’t imagine.  Goddamn.  That was like a sea of people.

AMG: Yeah, dude, and they all know every single word to every single song even though they don’t speak your language.

Trevor: That’s a trip dude.  That’s the coolest shit ever.

AMG: That shit is impressive.  But what is the biggest show you guys have ever played?

Trevor: It’s from festivals obviously.  We stood probably in front of nine or ten thousand at a festival in Japan one time, that was cool.  We played at Wacken, there was a good bit of people.  We were the first band on the second day, we played at like 11 am.  And there must’ve been about 10,000 people there watching and that was a good feeling.  In Indonesia we headlined a show for about 4,000.  That was pretty damn big.

AMG: Damn, that’s really big.  What size venues are you guys playing now?   Are you guys playing sort of middle sized venues now?

Trevor: Yeah, we’re in that middle room.  I think it’s like, a good show out in the states will be like anywhere between 5-to-800. If we have a really good tour, you know, good package and stuff.  It depends.  We’re trying to play it safe on this next run you know because of the economy being down so hard right now.  We’re planning our next round, I think we’re going for the mid-

sized rooms.  It’s been really fun, man, pretty much every time we play we don’t have to settle for anything but chaos, you know what I mean?  Crowd surfing and going nuts.  We just wanna have some fun and kinda get rid of  the loads of your normal life just for a minute, you know?

AMG: I guess I wanna know what you want to say to all the kids who are downloading your record right now instead of buying it…

Trevor: I’d tell ‘em to pick it up.  I think a lot of them don’t understand.. I think the common consensus out there is that “Well they don’t get any money from their CD sales,” and that’s pretty much true.  But, uh, it still decides the pecking order of who plays over who, who has the clout to take what fucking bands, blah, blah fucking blah, blah blah blah.

AMG: Alright, alright…

Trevor: It’s very, very important that people buy the record.  That our fans buy the record, I encourage them.  Because if they love us, I’m asking them.  Please.. [Laughs]  Right now it’s a hard time, and hard times have fallen on a lot of bands.  And, it would really make a statement if you picked up this album.

AMG: Are you down on your knees, by any chance?

Trevor: I’m on my knees.  I’m asking [inaudable] of humanity.

AMG: [Laughing] Alright, sort nearing the end of our time here.. what are some really great obscure death metal records that you’ve picked up recently?  Shit that isn’t.. you know.. On..

Trevor: Yeah, yeah, shit that’s not on Metal Blade.  [Laughter abounds]  I don’t know, as far as new bands.  Um, let’s see.. Hmmmm… I’ve been on a real old school kick in the last while, finding a lot of old school CDs.  There’s plenty of obscure shit in that realm, too.  Recent bands I like, um, Dead Congregation, I like a lot from Greece they have the drummer from Voracity.  They’re like the really dark death metal band, somewhat like Incantation, but like tight and really fast.  I don’t know, I’ve been really falling in love with the really dark death metal stuff like that.  Shit where they play on stage with a bunch of candles and cloaks and shit like that.  And bone necklaces and shit, but they’re awesome.

AMG: Nice, nice.. Have you heard Fleshgod Apocaplyse?  They’re more tech…

Trevor: Yeah, that’s the other Hour of Penance band… Fuckin’ rad.

AMG: [Laughs] Yeah, man, but they’re way more classical man, they’re way more melodic..

Trevor: Yeah, it has like a little bit of orchestrated stuff and…

AMG: Yeah, yeah, that’s like the one sort of techdeath record that I’ve been getting into.  There’s a bunch of stuff that’s come out like Ulcerate and …

Trevor: Yeah, I like Ulcerate, we actually played with those guys out in New Zealand.  And they were AWESOME, man.  That drummer is real dude.  There’s nothing fake there, man.

AMG: What’s up with the.. do you guys trigger?

Trevor: Uh, just the kicks.

AMG: What do you think of that?  With the whole fact that drums sound like there’s no toughness in the drums anymore..

Trevor: Yeah, it’s been a bit of a trend and I think it stems from everyone’s excitement about ProTools.  When it was first getting around everywhere, you know?  But some of it was kind of influenced by what was going on in metalcore production, you know what I mean?  Like, replacing the fuck out of every drum until it sounds like the hardest hit you’ve ever heard and it just doesn’t sound like a human you know what I mean?  Like quantize the shit out of it.  We tried to back off on that kind of sound on this record and go way more natural with the drums.  Like, all real.  The old school way.  I think it has more of a live energy to it.

AMG: It sounds good, it stands out, man.  So many bands are doing that now, it’s so.. You might as well be programming it, what’s the point of having a fucking drummer?

Trevor: [Laughs] And half the guys can’t even reproduce it live.  So, I dunno man.  We had some pretty fake sounding drums on Miasma but we’ve definitely gone away from that.

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And that was that.  Sadly, our time was up.  Anyway, there is some more to this interview, bits and pieces that unfortunately got missed due to shitty sound quality.   Including a lot in the section about death metal bands.  Bummer.  Either way though, Trevor was a sport and you should buy the new record.  He’s begging you…

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Sonata Arctica is a big deal. Not just for this blog (as it’s the first of many major label interviews to come), but just in the metal world as well. They’ve got real draw power, and they have continued to develop as a band, despite some set backs here and there. Not only that, but because for many years I swore by them as the best power metal band of all time. I have been a pretty much die-hard fan of the band since I was 19, and was therefore totally fucking stoked to get a chance to interview their keyboardist Henrik—affectionately known to the label guys and his friends as Henkka—about the new album, what’s going on with the band and whether or not he’s ever been in a knife fight. Why are you looking at me like that? All the Finns do is drink, fight and make metal… right?

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AMG: The biggest news besides you guys having a new album is that this record is being recorded with a new guitarist by the name of Elias—how’s that going?

Henkka: Well, it’s going pretty well. I mean, he doesn’t feel so new for us because he started playing on the tour with the last album and then he joined the band during the last tour. So he’s been in the band now for two years, I think even more, you know, three years. So, you know, of course it was a new experience to work with the new guy in the studio and he’s just been, from day one, a really easy going, mellow guy and it’s just, I mean, he’s really easy to work with. He’s open-minded to whatever we can throw his way and he can actually play anything that comes into your head so that always helps.

AMG: Has it been weird working in the studio without Jani and with Elias?

Henkka: Well, the way we work nowadays is that we pretty much rehearse together and then everybody records wherever they feel like, so we usually record at different studios anyway. So, I didn’t see him in the studio at all because he lives 4 hours south from here so he was recording in his home town and then just sending us the files. The rehearsels were a little bit different when Jani wasn’t here, but it’s kind of, I think it would’ve been much more difficult if he had just joined the band straight at the beginning of the recording process. But we played the whole last world tour with him which was almost two years, and we spent so much time together before so it wasn’t really awkward or it didn’t really seem that weird at all.

AMG: With the writing then, since he’s been touring with you guys before this, does any of that happen on the road? Or do you guys come back from tours and then go into your own separate corners and then Tony comes back with songs? Or, how does that work?

Henkka: Tony writes all or most of the music, so whenever he’s home he writes stuff when he feels like it. Of course, on the road, I don’t think he gets anything done. I think nobody else gets anything done either. I mean, on tour it’s uh.. well, during the first days you can kind of have your energy and kind of do something reasonable but then pretty soon when you’re just sitting in the bus days in and days out the only energy you have is on stage and outside of that we turn into this fucking amoebas or something and you just sit there and pick your nose and play PlayStation or something. At least for me it’s really hard to get anything creative done on the road. So with this album, it was like we did the tour and then in the beginning of December last year, and then the rest of us had two months off while Tony was finishing up, he had some songs left already that he had written before. He wrote songs for a couple of months and then we got together and started rehearsing. That’s pretty much how it works.

AMG: How long is the rehearsal process?

Henkka: This time we got I think 5 or 6 weeks of rehearsing. But, we had some days off in between as well. And when we rehearse we like to work like normal people, we like to work Monday to Friday and then have the weekends off, so you can go home and reflect on things a little bit. And usually Tony almost never has all the songs ready when we go into the studio. It’s always like during the rehearsal process we have like maybe two-thirds of the album where we knew what was going to happen and then when we we’re in the studio you get this e-mail that’s something like “Yeah, this is something I made last night” or something like that, so.. it’s always like that with him because uh, well, he doesn’t need time he just needs a deadline. [laughs] So that’s how it works.

AMG: So what kind of say do you guys have in the process? Do you get to experiment?

Henkka: It depends from song to song, I mean. Some stuff, some of the demos are really rough and we have to work on it a lot to get it to work. And then some songs it’s just like, we listen to the demo and at the first take it’s like “hey, this is pretty great as it is.” Usually it’s more small things here and there that we change, and of course for me and Elias there’s always solos to play and those are never written by Tony fortunately. [laughs] I’m dreading that that moment is going to come actually.. “Hey I have this great solo for you to play,” and then I think that’s going to be a no-go.

AMG: But didn’t Tony used to write all the keyboard stuff?

Henkka: Yeah, actually, we work in a way that some of the tracks we take straight from the demos especially if it’s a song he hasn’t changed around that much because he’s been recording it at home and so on this album some stuff we took directly from the demos and some stuff he sent over to me and I used my magic mouse hand to fix his piano playing and stuff. Some stuff he played and it’s like “hey this is really great, but it doesn’t quite work,” you know, so I played it again. It depends you know if there’s like a piano part that needs to be sensitive or something like that he doesn’t always pull it off then I might go in and play it again. It’s a balance that we’ve been trying to figure out for two or three albums, I think this one we are pretty close to finding the perfect balance, like taking the stuff that I do well and the stuff that he does well and combine that. And, of course, for me I have to rehearse a whole lot of stuff when we go on the road because I have to play it all at the end of the day anyway so.. As long as you keep your mind open and don’t let your ego get in the way, then it’s OK and he comes up with a lot of really great stuff and it would be stupid not to use it.

AMG: You play on a keytar, do you record on one?

Henkka: Uh, no, no I don’t. I don’t know, I haven’t actually even tried. It’s like when you jump around a lot on the stage and stuff it’s quite hard to play… especially when you’re recording everything has to be really exact and I prefer to play a normal keyboard, it’s just so much easier.

AMG: Do you just use the keytar on stage because it’s better for live shows then?

Henkka: Yeah, I think so. It looks better, it’s more fun for me. I don’t have to just stand in the corner, but of course every once in a while I get a headache because you have to figure out how to play stuff with one hand that you did in the studio with two hands. Of course, I use a normal keyboard as well because when you want to play piano stuff on the keytar it’s really too hard. I’m too lazy for that, so for me it’s just a live tool to make the live show a little bit more interesting.

AMG: So more specifically about the new album, the name, The Days of Grays, where does that root from?

Henkka: Actually, we had another name, but again it was too dark. It would have suited maybe a death metal band, and then I think Tony was playing World of Warcraft or something with his friends and chatting on the Internet and he was saying “Yeah, we’re having so much trouble coming up with the name.” We actually had a brainstorming session one day when everyone was hung over and we only came up with really shitty ideas. So I… I think one of his friends suggested it and they were just talking and he said “what about this,” and he came in and gave said “Well, this could be it,” and we were like “Yeah, this is it.” It was more luck than anything else.

AMG: I have to ask before I say anything about it because I did a promo copy, but what album would you compare this to, as far as the Sonata Arctica discog is concerned?

Henkka: I can only choose one right? I would say it’s something in between Reckoning Night and Unia. I’m not sure that’s a statement I really would like to say, but if I had to compare I’d say that you can find most elements on the new album on those records.

AMG: Mm hmm, ’cause it seems like you guys have moved a little bit back towards faster but you’re not really doing that Silence-era material. Has that been an organic change or is that intentional? Are you sick of it? Finding it monotonous? Or that Tony is just writing more progressive music? What happened there?

Henkka: Well, I think it’s maybe a combination of all of the stuff that you just said. Unia for us was the most different album that we ever made and that came at the point when everybody was sick of this super fast thing and we wanted to try something more interesting and Tony said he was having trouble writing these fast songs. We said, let’s just roll with it and see what happens so for us that was an album we really had to make for ourselves. A lot of that stuff shines true on this album as well, but there is never any intention to go back, I think, there was never an intention with any album to go back so I think OK, maybe it has some elements from the past but we’re just heading in some other direction now. It comes pretty naturally, and also when we tour for a couple of years a lot of things change during that time, and that goes into the writing process from Tony and of course the arrangements that we do. That means that the next one is going to be again something different. We really don’t knock anything out before or have like a band meeting “like, the next album should be like this or like that,” we just roll with it and see what happens. I think the main thing is that it mostly depends what Tony comes up with.

AMG: You said that Unia was sort of a record of necessity. So, how did your fan base, not necessarily the hardcore fans, but the more peripheral fans react to it?

Henkka: We got a lot of new fans with that album, a lot of people said that they didn’t like Sonata before but this one was really good, of course a lot of people did not like it as well because they would like us to do Silence 10 times over and that’s fine. I understand that but for us, to keep ourselves motivated and interested in this business we have to keep the music interesting as well. We got quite a bit of mixed reviews but all-in-all we came out ahead and we’ll see what happens with the next one of course. For us it was not our main concern, our main concern was to make an album that was interesting for us and hope that people like it and a lot of people did like it. That’s how it goes sometimes.

AMG: Speaking of new fans, you guys have toured the US a lot over the last 5 or 6 years, I think more than probably any other Finnish band. In fact, I’m trying to think of other Finnish or European bands that have toured so fiercely… I think Dimmu Borgir toured like nuts over there for a while, or Opeth has toured like crazy too. Why have you done that? Are you trying really hard to break into the American market and has it worked?

Henkka: Well we are trying really hard, but I think there’s still a lot of work to be done. The States are really big and there’s still not that many people who know us. So far people show up at the show and it’s been great, we really haven’t had to play that many shows that are like “oh, there’s not that many people” you know, but there’s a lot of ground to cover and we’ll be going back I think two or three times with this album as well and see what comes out of it. I just got hooked up on that other Finnish bands thing, I think Nightwish has toured the US now quite a lot and Children of Bodom, at least at some point they were there really much.

AMG: That’s true, I saw Children in 2000 and I’ve seen them probably a half dozen times since then too…

Henkka: I think it’s the kind of market where you have to go back and back and back and then maybe something comes out of it, but so far it’s going well in the respect that we don’t really make that much money, but we don’t lose money so we can actually go there and tour and we stay alive. We are going to continue to go back and we will try to work it for the next few years and see what happens.

AMG: Yeah, that’s cool, and you guys are touring with Dragonforce coming up here, right?

Henkka: It’s coming up this fall.

AMG: That’s going to be a big deal…

Henkka: Yeah, I think so. I think they’re doing pretty well there, so I hope we’re going to get a lot of new fans from that crowd as well. But with these things you never know until afterwards, you know. We met the Dragonforce guys when we were playing, uh.. well, we’ve met them before as well but, we met them last year in Japan and…

[Funny story, this is where Henkka's cell phone dies.. yay! Technology!]

Ok, we were talking about the Dragonforce thing, right? Yeah, I don’t know at what point you lost me, yeah.

AMG: Yeah, you said you met them in Japan.

Henkka: Alright. Well anyway we met in Japan and had some beers and they were like “yeah, it’d be really cool if you guys would tour with us in the States” and we were like “Sure, of course.” But that happens a lot you talk to people when they’re drunk and nothing comes out of it, you know? But then a few months later we got an e-mail from management, and they said “Hey, do you wanna support us” and blah blah blah, and we were like “Sure, of course we do!” And it fit with our schedule as well, the album is coming out just before or during the tour.. so yeah, I have big hopes for that tour.

AMG: And then you’re headed to Europe after that and probably to Japan of course?

Henkka: Yeah, we’re doing a headlining tour in Europe for 5 weeks before Christmas, and then we have a Christmas break and then we’re doing an Asian tour with China and whatnot, and ending up in Japan before we head home.

AMG: So, are you guys as huge in Japan as it seems?

Henkka: I don’t know how huge we are these days because you know, when I joined the band we were really huge in Japan, but I think it’s getting a bit smaller with Unia there was… I don’t think they liked that album that much over there. [laughs] Because they really, really want the faster and older stuff. But still we’re doing pretty well there and we’re playing sold out shows, but we’re not like really huge we’re not playing in the Buddakan or stuff like that. [Laughs]

AMG: Well, that’s crappy.. [laughs]

Henkka: No, it’s still OK. We’re still playing clubs for 1,000, 2,000 people so it’s totally cool, it’s nothing to complain about.

AMG: Yeah, so it’s nothing to complain about.. [more laughing] Exactly.

Henkka: No, no no.. absolutely not!

AMG: So, switching topics a bit, did you guys get a strong reaction to the whole situation with Jani?

Henkka: Uh, yeah. Somewhat yeah, a lot of our fans were like “Hey, why did this happen?” and blah blah blah blah blah and I think, I don’t remember exactly what we said in our statement at the time, but I think it should have been made clear that this was something we couldn’t do anything about. It’s basically pretty hard to have a guitar player without a passport who can’t travel anywhere. And he was really messing his life up and not, uh… I mean, he was dodging the phone for like 3 or 4 months, so it’s impossible to work with somebody if the situation is like that. Originally the thing was like, we said like, “OK, you get your shit together and Elias is covering for you and you get your stuff done and when you’re ready you come back.” But then we still couldn’t get ahold of him and he wouldn’t answer the phone and then we were on tour with Elias and at some point we just had to say, “Look, if you’re not making this effort this is not going to work out.” So.., but I think partly he did not want to be in the band anymore but he just couldn’t manage to tell us that. That I think could have been one of the reasons that he let everything slip through his hands and go, you know, at least some statements that I read by him later.. he seemed like he didn’t want to be in the band, but just couldn’t say it out loud or something like that. Of course it was a difficult time for us, we were in the middle of recording an album when these things started to happen. Then we got the album ready and then it was a total disaster and we had shows booked for like one or two years ahead and we had no guitar player and so for us that was a pretty chaotic time for the band, but I think we got through it and things are way easier with Elias. I mean, I just got off the phone with him to call you, so.. It was a really… there were really a lot of problems and a lot of stuff that I won’t go into and that we didn’t tell the public because it wouldn’t have been fair, but basically…the tip of the iceberg is something that people know and that was eventually what led to the situation where we chose to fire him.

AMG: Yeah. [Silence] Yeah.. I think I’ll just let that lie..

Henkka: [Laughs] Yeah, well.. to get back to your question, we got reactions of course, but I think ultimately people understand that we are making a living off of this we can’t just have somebody fuck it all up. And also, I think the last couple of years people saw Elias live and then you know there was no discussion.

AMG: That’s fairly common though, I think it’s pretty common for a band to upgrade with a guitar genius once somebody else has left, you end up getting somebody who can play everything PLUS some..

Henkka: Yeah, well with the music that we play we cannot afford to take a crappy guitar player.

AMG: Totally.. so, now for something completely different.. Have you ever been in a knife fight?

Henkka: A knife.. What?? [Laughs]

AMG: Well, it’s just the standard Swedish stereotypes of Finns.. that they’re drunk and violent. So I had to ask… [laughs]

Henkka: Yeah?

AMG: Yeah, so you’ve never been in a knife fight?

Henkka: Yeah.. well, once. [Laughs] We’re not that violent, but we’re drunk OK.. And things happen in the dark hours.. and sometimes you actually remember what happens, but most times you don’t and it’s, I think, all for the better..

AMG: Yeah, actually I was going to ask apropos Finland.. Why do you think it is that Finland has become the center of a lot of metal that’s coming out these days.. it seems like for a while it was Norway and Sweden and now that’s tapered off, but Finland is a hot spot right now.

Henkka: Yeah, well, it’s really hard to say. We get that question a lot and it’s always difficult to answer it. But I think that there have always been a lot of bands in Finland and there’s been pretty good bands, but it’s not until recent years have we actually gotten the business side of it with managers and record labels and so forth, up to the level that they could actually get the bands exported to other countries. And now with that, now that we have professional managers, we have book agents and whatnot then the bands who actually do know how to play and do something interesting, they now have a chance to get abroad and get on the map so people find them. And that was a problem before. And I think maybe that’s at least one of the reasons that bands get out from here. It’s really hard to say, and I think in some years it might shift, it’s going to be Sweden again or Norway again and I think it’s just how it goes. We are enjoying our time in the sun that’s for sure. I have no idea how it happened, I’m just happy to be a part of it.

AMG: OK, but there are a couple questions I have about live shows… first, why do you guys insist on doing medleys?

Henkka: We do it mainly because we don’t have time to play all the songs that we would like to play and then of course, it’s getting harder and harder with every album because there are so many songs to choose from. So instead of you playing just one song or two songs, we play one medley and we can fit a lot of songs in there and cover a lot of ground with a shorter amount of time. Of course, it’s not the ultimate decision I think the best decision would be to play three hour shows, but that’s a little bit much. I don’t know know if we’re going to play a medley on this tour, but we’ve been talking about it.. because there’s always.. you know, I want to play some songs, Tony wants to play some songs, Elias wants to play.. well, he’s pretty much OK with everything [laughs]. But this guy wants to play this, and that guy wants to play that, and I don’t like this song and somebody else doesn’t like that song, so uh, the medleys are basically a compromise. Also for us it’s interesting, instead of playing Replica for the thousandth time we play Replica with something else. Yeah it’s a hobby of ours, every once in a while.. It’s interesting for the fans as well, especially the hardcore people who have heard most of the songs anyway for them to spot “Hey, that’s from that song and that’s from that song,” and you know, for me personally I’m a bit fan of Rush and they always did these medley things and I thought as a fan I really enjoyed that, so..

AMG: I understand that, I’ve been an Iron Maiden fan for my entire life and the thing that always kills me about them is that they never play deep cuts. They always play the same damn 20 songs… Have you ever considered doing a tour where you play deep tracks, like songs that would be cool for hardcore fans but are not, you know.. Full Moon?

Henkka: Yeah, [laughs] oh, that’s a good example. That’s uh, on the last tour we were playing White Pearl, Black Oceans… and we’re still going to be playing that one live I think, and of course, sometimes we’ve thought about that and of course there’s always going to be one or two, or maybe more songs that we play that are going to be a bit more odd or a bit more special, but to make a setlist just with the weird songs might just be a little bit too much. Then, of course, some songs we’ve tried and if they don’t work then we just scrap it.. Maybe on some songs we’ve gone a little bit too far with the vocals and keyboards, and then if you want to make it work live you have to use a lot of backup tapes and shit like that and you can get lost in that kind of jungle. Definitely, we try to do something other than Full Moon as well.

So, that was SUPPOSED to be the end, but then we got talking about partying.. Of course, what unites metalheads more than beer (Metal? Nah.. it’s the beer)? Unfortunately it didn’t get recorded, but I started asking about the comment where he was saying that they just sit on the bus and play PS2.. so that is, “is the partying while touring going down” he started saying “Well, we always say…”

Henkka: … we won’t drink so much on the next tour.. we’re always bloated and tired anyway. [laughs] I think the worst one for me was The Reckoning Night tour, it got basically totally out of hand, yeah. I’m surprised that me, and I won’t say any other names, but I was not alone in that boat, some of us were pretty fucked up during that whole two year period. But uh, luckily we managed to do all the shows and not screw up. But it was.. uh, yeah. I think you have to take it to a point where you realize yourself that this is too much and then you cut back. But of course, after the show we usually drink. But maybe it’s not so out of hand as it used to be… earlier.

AMG: Yeah, they always say that being in a band is like being in a relationship..

Henkka: Yeah, it’s just five guys.. [laughs]

AMG: .. but it’s one of those things like, you have to get old and boring sometime, right?

Henkka: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. Also, I think if we continued at the pace that we used to do with the partying stuff, if we continued in that way.. I think I would be dead in 10 years. We would like to continue to work after that as well. [laughter abounds] But, uh, we were just away for a week and played two shows and got pretty wasted on both nights so.. yeah, we are trying to cut back, we are trying and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t..

AMG: Sounds like you guys need an Alcoholics Anonymous counselor on the bus or something..

Henkka: That sounds like a pretty OK idea. [laughs]

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Fejd released their fourth CD, Storm, earlier this year and, for those of you who regularly come to this site, you’ll know that I really dug it.  But who are these Swedish viking types, and where do they come from?  How is it that they were producing totally awesome demos, but never got a record deal before very recently with the recording/producing of Storm?  These are questions that I will ask in the interview I did with Esko, who plays drums in Fejd.  Exclusively here at Angry Metal Guy!

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AMG: Explain the background concept of Fejd–why did you elect to go with the sound and instrumentation you went with? Who plays what and are all the instruments native to Sweden (aside from the rock instruments, of course)?

Esko: We did not really have any concept when we started Fejd. Patrik & Niklas had been in to Folk music for some years when we started and we all felt that the style felt fresh compared to the Metal music we all had been playing for many years. This was something we could play for the joy of it, without any restrictions or demands, just go with the flow and play what we felt and thought was right. The reason we chose the instruments we use can only be explained with that,we like the sound of them. Every instrument represents a unique sound, impossible to re-create with something else, without losing the identity and sound from the original instrument. I play drums, Thomas Bass, Specht keyboards & guitar, Niklas Moraharpa and Patrik plays the rest (Bouzouki, Swedish bagpipe, cows-horn, Hurdy-Gurdy, Jew’s harp and so on). I guess it is quite difficult to claim the exact origin of an instrument, as there are many similar instruments in lots of culture. We know that the bagpipe we use is a Swedish variant of the instrument and that it is different in some ways from others. The Jew’s harp can be found in different shapes all around the world, so it’s difficult to claim an instrument but we choose them for the sound not for the origin.

AMG: A common search in reference to Fejd is translations of the lyrics, many bands elect to write in English, why did you elect to write in Swedish? Do you feel that it hampers your international success?

E: We use Swedish lyrics because we are Swedish, we have a rich language with words that other languages lack. Some of our lyrics deal with our folklore and beings from our Nordic culture and there are not any good words for all these beings in English. We also sing about nature and we are fortunate enough in Sweden to have Swedish names on plants, trees and stuff thanks to Carl von Linné (1707-1778).

AMG: Do you listen to modern folk metal that’s coming out? Or are you more interested in more traditional folk music? What are you keen on?

E: I can’t say that we follow everything that comes out nowadays, of the modern Folk Metal acts who’s playing today I believe Tyr is the only one that all of us listen to. We listen to different folk acts as well but I wouldn’t say that we are that traditional. We like Metal, lots of the old seventies & eighties stuff Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Mercyful Fate, Bathory but also metal that is a bit younger such as Opeth and stuff.

AMG: A lot of people in the Scandinavian cultures seem to associate folk music and/or anything that even has an odor of what could be dubbed as “nationalism” with a very skeptical eye–how do you find the reaction towards your music in Sweden? Do you find that people are cautious? Do you guys consider yourselves to be “nationalists”?

E: If we look at the amount of fans we seem to have in Sweden I do not think people seem to be cautious, but if we look at gig opportunities, you might be right.

I would not say Scandinavian cultures such as the Norwegians are very proud of their Folk and country, but I agree that people are afraid in Sweden. Being proud of your country has almost become the same as racism here unless it is sports, then it is OK to love your country.

We love Sweden, we love the seasons, to be able to walk in the woods or swim in a lake or the sea, to be able to pick mushrooms or berries in the forests if you feel like it.

We are proud of our athletes when they are performing well and are proud to be Swedish. However, that does not mean that we do not like other nations, cultures and people, I like everyone who is nice and knows to show respect for others. I believe that the world would be quite boring if we did not get inspiration from different parts of the world, in every way, food, music, art everything.

AMG: What do you think of Piratpartiet and IPRED (and the whole downloading music situation in Sweden in general these days)? As a musician, do you feel that IPRED is going to help anything?

E: As a musician I wouldn’t like to talk politics at all as our music is an escape from everything that you have to face in your normal life. But… For a small act as Fejd I cannot really see how anything they plan could help us, all laws at this level are meant to save the money for the labels and artists who already have too much. We are industrial workers who work hard and save our own money to record albums and pay taxes on money we already paid taxes on before to record our albums, work double shifts to afford to get out on the road. What is fair?

AMG: Why’d it take so long to get signed? I found your first two demos on your site for free and was blown away and figured that you guys had to have a label, but instead you guys just signed to Napalm recently.. What the hell?

E: We never cared about getting a label; we wanted to play for the fun of it and ”gave” away our songs for free when we recorded them. But people want real physical CDs and the situation really slipped out of our hands, it was impossible to distribute albums all over the world by ourselves. Storm was intended as an extended demo CD for our fans, not as a real full-length album. We were surprised by the interest from the labels because we didn’t even know that Marko (our producer) had contacted them in the first place. Napalm felt as the right choice for us and we talked about the situation a lot before we agreed to sign.

AMG: Are there any plans on re-releasing any of the early material, or re-recording it?

E: We decided that it wouldn’t be right for the ones who bought the original ”demos” to re-release them, but we are making new recordings of some of the songs on our coming albums, more as bonus tracks than ”real” songs. Our plan is to have two oldies on every album but we don’t have any decisions of what songs to choose next.

AMG: Are there any touring plans? Festivals?

E: We have been looking at some tour options but haven’t found anything that suits us at this point, festivals, however, are something that is always interesting. I believe it is all up to the promoters on the festivals to decide if they have the guts to have Fejd on the billing, most Metal festivals seems to be afraid of us, strange considering that most of our fans are Metalheads. I don’t think any of the festivals we’ve played so far has been disappointed for adding Fejd to their billing.

AMG: What’s your favorite traditional instrument?

E: For my part I have to say Moraharpa, it has an important part in our music and a sound that is really mystic and binding. I also like the cow horn as it takes me away to another time.

AMG: When can we expect a new record? How is Storm doing? Are you pleased with sales and the results?

E: We are planning a new recording later this year; I guess November is a quite good guess. That would mean a new album around April or May next year. Most of the music is written, we need to arrange it and rehearse and write some lyrics.

I don’t really know how Storm is going, it has been out for about three months now and it is our first ”real” album, I don’t really know what to expect in sales if we speak of numbers.

We have noticed a bigger interest in the band but I guess we need to give it some more time before we know if it is good or not. I know I am still driving a 15 year old Volvo so it feels like it could have sold better.

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Note: This is an old interview that I did back in the day, 2005 even.. it was a while back.  Taken from Unchain the Underground where I used to write.

I had originally gone through all the trouble of getting a 10 minute, mediocre interview with UNEARTH, and then, of course, I stuck around for the show. The other bands were OK. REMEMBERING NEVER was just a giant breakdown, TERROR was old-school run-in-place hardcore, and then  THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER got on stage. I hadn’t listened to them, before. I’d heard great things about them, and I was fucking blown away by their aggressive onslaught. This wasn’t metalcore.  This wasn’t hardcore. This was some of the best death metal I’d heard in a long time! It just so happened that I turned around to look for my friend and Trevor was standing there behind me. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get an impromptu interview! Here’s what went down.

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AMG: I’m here with Trevor [Vocals] from THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, a lot of people know nothing about your band, so tell us about yourself.

Trevor: Well, my name is Trevor, I sing for THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER we’re a melodic death metal band from Detroit, MI. We’ve been signed by Metalblade Records, we put out an album called Unhallowed about–well, not a year ago yet–yeah, maybe it was a year ago.  Well, y’know we’ve toured so much, I lose track of time. Yeah, well, we’re on tour right now with fuckin’ UNEARTH, TERROR and REMEMBERING NEVER and having a blast.

AMG: So what’s it like being a death metal band on a metalcore tour?

Trevor: Oh, it’s cool, it’s cool.  Because we have a lot of fans in pretty much any aspect of the heavy genres.  You know, we play hardcore shows and metalcore shows and have a lot of success, same as we play death metal shows.   And it’s cool that we can walk that line, you know what I mean? Because I don’t feel like we’re metalcore in any aspect musically really it’s just–I don’t know–it’s just.. there’s something about it that people are latching on to in the hardcore scene, and I like the energy from those people.  So it’s very, very cool.

AMG: I think the intensity is a lot different than a lot of metal shows.

Trevor: Oh yeah. I say this in a lot of interviews, but I look at metal as kind of a musicians music, you know what I mean?  Like, when you go to see a death metal band you want to see them play a lot of guitar stuff you think is really intense, you know, really hard to play, so you want to watch them pull it off, you know what I mean?  I don’t know, there’s just a lot of different aspects of the two types of tours we go on.  So, it’s cool to ride on both.

P: So what’s the scene like in Detroit?  Is it burgeoning or…?

Trevor: Its not like here [Minneapolis], man, like here you guys have Nightfall records, so a lot of kids got into death and grind around here today, so that means that you have a label here, you have record stores that cater to kids who want metal, y’know, we don’t have that in Detroit at all.  There’s no metal record stores at all.  Uh, there’s barely any independent record stores in Detroit. So, without that kind of support, there are death metal bands but they’re really scattered, without that kind of support between a label or like someone that can unify everybody, y’know.. the death metal scene is pretty scattered. So we mostly play hardcore shows when we’re in Detroit, but those are hit and miss, too. All the kids who I used to go to shows with I don’t see anymore, but, we kinda got our own crowd in Detroit now of really young kids that are really excited to be–well, we might be the first really heavy band they’ve heard or some shit like that, so the kids are fuckin’ going nuts for it in Detroit so that’s refreshing, it’s really cool.

AMG: That’s crazy man, I always figured that Detroit would have a better scene given the number of shows that I see that go through there. Everybody goes to Harpo’s.

Trevor: Well, Harpo’s is horrible.

AMG: Is it?

Trevor: Like, the only bands that go through Harpo’s are like DIMMU BORGIR, y’know what I mean, like, you’re not going to see some cool ass little death metal band from Greece like VORACITY, or something.   So, it’s like, they won’t even cater to midsize bands. Harpo’s is all there is, it’s humongous. If you’re not huge, then you don’t play Harpo’s. There’s nothing for the smaller bands, which, in most cases, are the better bands, in my opinion, y’know what I mean?

AMG: Yeah, well, metal is about the underground, man.

Trevor: Exactly, exactly.  In Detroit it’s really not, so it sucks.  Here [Minneapolis], even in every  aspect of extreme music you guys have fuckin’ Felix Havoc out here with fuckin’ Havoc Records so there’s a lot of crust punk kids around here. You’ve got a really healthy crust punk scene. We don’t have that in Detroit either, ’cause there’s no education, nobody knows about stuff in Detroit, I guess.  Everything goes under the radar.  And, uh, we didn’t know what to expect the first time we played here, when we played a fest that Don Decker booked. We had no idea what to expect, and people just went nuts when we played, and we were like “Oh my God, man!”  It was a fuckin’ huge surprise.

AMG: So you get this kind of response every time you hit Minneapolis?

Trevor: Oh yeah, yeah! The kids here are fucking sick, man.

AMG: Where else do you get reactions like that?

Trevor: There’s like–New York is very cool. Philidelphia is pretty good.  Pretty much anywhere you’d think of, you know what I mean?  Like, Las Vegas is fucking sick, major cities in California are really sick. Then there are surprise where you go and play this little show in Idaho and these kids’ll go in-fucking-sane, man, because they’re music starved, or something y’know what I mean?

AMG: They haven’t seen a decent metal band in 2 1/2 years.

Trevor: Yeah, that’s pretty much what the story is, so, it’s cool when that works out like that, too.

AMG: So what have you got on the radar, here?

Trevor:  Sure, I’ll give you some updates on what’s going on here, we’ve got our old EP was on this really small label Lovelost and we had some problems with them, so we’re putting it back out with new cover-art, remastered, um, it’s going to be on Black Market Activites Records which is going to be a subsidiary of Metalblade which is run by THE RED CHORD. Yeah, they’re re -releasing the EP. And I just OKd the artwork like three days ago and it looks fucking amazing, so finally it’s going to sound and look as  good as we had wanted it to back then.  And it’s going to have some live bonus tracks and some multi-media shit like some video clips for your computer.  And that’ll hopefully hold people over until we record in March, and the record comes out, um, well, it’s slated for early summer.

AMG: Who’s producing it?

Trevor: Um, mostly us, but uh, Andreas from this band SCARLET who we toured with and had a really good time with those guys. He records all their stuff and it sounds fucking sick and then he goes to Traxeast to mix it down, like where DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN do a lot of their stuff and GOD FORBID and that kind of thing. Yeah, we’re going to do the same thing. We’re recording with him, taking the fucking tapes to Traxeast and mixing it.

AMG: Killer.

Trevor: And we’re looking forward to it, because we feel like Unhallowed while it’s good in its own right and people like it to a degree, and that’s cool, we feel its not the best representation of us that could be, we rushed it really bad, we didn’t have a lot of money. Luckily everything’s been going for us this year. Now we get the chance to slow down and make the record we really want to make.

AMG: Are you getting a better budget for this record then?

Trevor:  Oh yeah.  Things have been going really well for us this year, like I said, we’ve been on a tour.. this is like our tenth or eleventh tour on this album. I haven’t been on home for more than two months this year, when you put all the time together.

AMG: So have you been to Europe?

Trevor:  We’ve been over to play at fests, this Download Fest. And like, METALLICA was headlining and shit, but we were like the smallest band there.  So we played at the same time as MACHINE HEAD and HATEBREED on two different stages.

AMG: So you had like 15 guys watching you?

Trevor:  We had like 1000 guys, but when there’s 70,000 that’s the equivalent of like 15 people in America. [laughter abounds]  Yeah, all we’ve been over there is for that fest, but we are going back there, um, in December, beginning of December we’re going to tour with NAPALM DEATH, MARDUK and VADER, so it’s going to be a great way to close out this whole year of fucking awesomeness.

AMG: Yeah man, that’s fucking killer!  So after that tour you come back, you hit the studio…

Trevor: Right before we hit the studio we’re coming back through here, Minneapolis, we’re on the SUFFOCATION tour for like five days, and it’s all midwestern shows.

AMG: Who’s on that tour?

Trevor: Um, SUFFOCATION, BEHEMOTH, us, and I think DEVIL INSIDE who are local, too.  So, that’ll be cool.

AMG: Yeah, no shit.

Trevor: Right after that we’re going into the studio.  So at that show we’ll be playing a couple new songs that we didn’t play tonight, obviously.

AMG: Right.  Killer man. Best of luck to you, thanks for the interview man, I appreciate it.

Trevor:  Cool, no problem, dude.

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Note: This was the first interview I did, and it wasn’t really my best.  I found this dude to be not exactly stoked about doing an interview.  My guess is that they drew straws and he got stuck with it.  Taken from Unchain the Underground, from when I wrote for them.

For many, the name UNEARTH is synonymous with everything they like about metal-core; hardcore breakdowns mixed in among technical, melodic guitar lines, topped by sometimes-political, sometimes-personal screaming that’s always lined with angst. Having always been a metal kid, I’d never really given any of these “Luke Skywalker” types who “sound like AT THE GATES” any credence until I heard UNEARTH.  So, of course, I was thrilled at the chance to sit down with Ken Susi over a beer and have a quick chat before their show in Minneapolis (w/TERROR, BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, and REMEMBERING NEVER). Here’s a bit of that conversation.

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So why did you choose to work with Adam D. [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE] on the new record?

Ken: He’s my best friend, and we’ve done all our other albums with him, so we just decided to keep it together.

Why did you choose to sign with Metal Blade as opposed to staying with a more hardcore label?

Ken: The hardcore label wasn’t really working out for us, we were hitting roofs and basically we couldn’t stay there because we were bigger than the label. Nothing against Eulogy in any way, shape or form, but we needed more promotion, we need more money to do recording in order to make it sound well [sic] and to be an established band. So we decided to take the next step, there were other labels that wanted to sign us but we chose Metal Blade because it was an honest deal and those guys have always been cool.  We could’ve shot higher and been on Road Runner or whatever, but we didn’t want people stepping into our music and telling us what to do.

Ok, cool.  Personally I think that The Oncoming Storm has a much cleaner production than your last two, at least your last full length The Stings of Conscience…

Ken: It’s more time, it’s more time in the studio. We spent a month on that album, versus four or five days on Stings.   So, you can tell by that.

Do you think the more technical aspects, the more “Metal” aspects of your music, the sweeping, the solos, etc., are going to isolate your more Hardcore fan base?

Ken: No, not in any way, shape or form, because we’ve always integrated it tastefully into our music.   We’ve kept the happy medium between the two, we are a metal band, but we are a hardcore band, there’s no separating the two.  We’re a true metalcore band, kids who like hardcore will like us, and kids who like metal will like us as well.

You do clean vocals on this record, don’t you?

Ken: Yeah.

Why did you choose to include them?

Ken: The parts called for it. There’s a couple parts that called for some parts, and we’re not afraid to do stuff like that.  It’s not like we’re trying to mold or shape our music to be anything mainstream or anything like that, it’s just like the CAVE IN approach, if the part calls for a good clean part, then we’re going to do it.

Right on!  So then why did you choose to re-record Endless?

Ken: Because it was only on an EP, and that song needed to be on an album so that the world could hear it.

So as far as your sound goes, you’ve got kind of that AT THE GATES, IN FLAMES, Swedish Death sound. Do you think you’ve gone over better in the US, where the sound is more of a new thing, a commodity, or in Europe where the sound has been around a lot longer?

Ken: The sound has been pretty big in the US for quite a while now but as far as Europe goes, it’s working out on both spectrums, I mean, we’re doing well in both markets.  I think if anything this is becoming a new style, a new form of music, the way we integrate IRON MAIDEN parts with the CROWBAR stuff, we don’t really worry about specific points of our music, we’re taking the big picture and throwing it out there.   Some people will be like, “Oh, you sound like HATEBREED at parts,” and then someone will be like “Oh, well you sound like IN FLAMES, or AT THE GATES, or IRON MAIDEN.”  It’s like “Well, that’s cool, those are our influences” but we’re going for that other type of thing, and that’s the UNEARTH sound.

Why do you think this sound is taking off, why do you think it appeals to people?

Ken: The style that we’ve been doing for the past six years is unique, not many people have done the IRON MAIDEN meets hardcore stuff, a lot of kids have jocked us throughout the years, which is OK, but, I mean it’s time for the band who started doing that kind of stuff to start progressing and make things happen.

Alright, cool. So now, onto politics!   The new record obviously has a political undertone to it…

Ken: Yeah.

So how influential have the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act been on the lyrics?

Ken: I mean, the war in Iraq, we’ve got friends and people who are being shipped off to war.  In the band there are dudes that are pro-Bush and there are dudes that are against Bush.  It’s not really like the band came together and said “Oh, we believe in this and we believe in that.” It’s not like we’ve had any of these in depth conversations about it.  But what we do is that we understand this one general thing, that the world in general, not Iraq, not Afghanistan and all these other places that we’re invading or that people are invading every day.. it’s just that we’re adamant about people in general, and the way that society and humans act in this time, y’know, in this period of time and even in the past.

History, basically, is one of those things that foretells the future and after WWII, after we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki people should’ve understood that war is an awful thing and that we should stay away from this and shy away from it, but it seems like it’s been on hiatus for a few years and now it’s all back, like, everything is escalating, everything’s happening.  Countries need to get together and people need to get together in order to sort out their differences, because education is.. I mean, we’re very educated people, the world is very educated, not all places, but people should know better and work out their differences.   If we don’t, we’re all going to be fucking wiped off, so, the way we see it is, y’know, it’s not about like, this war or that war, or the right or wrong war, it’s about people in general starting within their families, raising their kids right, being home, spreading it throughout their community, and have their community start to spread it elsewhere.   The more positive means of living and culture, or whatever, is excellent .  That’s what’s going to prosper, that’s what’s going to make the world a great place.

So, did you pick up the new SONATA ARCTICA record Winterheart’s Guild?

Ken: I love SONATA ARCTICA, they’re fucking amazing!

Yeah, they should’ve been on Ozzfest.  Speaking of which, who were you most excited to play with on Ozzfest?

Ken: Um, I was most excited to play on the same bill as JUDAS PRIEST and OZZY and BLACK SABBATH, because they’re main influences in my life.

Did you hear about the thing with DIMMU where they were kicked off the air for calling saying that anyone talking shit about Rob Halford being gay was “Fucking Bullshit?”

Ken: Well, I never heard about it, but I can say that dude is brutal as fuck and whether he’s sucking someone’s dick or eating a pussy, I could care less.  He’s a good dude, he’s a great singer, and he’s inspired a lot of people. So, y’know, race, or sexual orientation has nothing to do with metal or hardcore music in general, music is a feeling, music is an emotion, it’s not race or sex.

Kris Kross will make you…

Have you seen any changes in your success since going on Ozzfest?

Ken: No, we’re still broke-ass motherfuckers.  [laughter] We still play the same show we’ve played the last six years.

You were forced to shut down a show earlier on this tour because of ‘too many fights that broke out’ during TERROR’s set. What happened?

Ken: Oh, it was just a riot.   It happens. Yeah, it was just fights and shit like that, we didn’t have to shut it down, the club shut it down, the police shut it down, so, you roll with the punches.  Y’know, there’s a ton of shows where people have gotten stabbed or hurt, y’know, it happens.   It’s part of heavy and aggressive music.

Righto, cool man, thanks for the interview, and good luck tonight dude.

Ken: Cool, thanks man.

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