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!

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.

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.

—

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.

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.

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..

The Norwegian journalist who Mustaine is all pissed off at has posted all 25 minutes of their interview online and I’d like you to watch the first few minutes of it, up to the part where he starts talking about Metallica.  Pay close attention to what he’s saying about 9/11 being an inside job and all that.  I know already I’m going to take a shit-ton of heat for this post, but I gotta say it.

OK, I took a lot of heat when I wrote my Megadeth Endgame review for calling out Dave Mustaine on his ridiculous lyrics, despite holding out that, indeed, the record was very, very good.  There were a lot of people who defended him in different ways, saying that Dave Mustaine has always been writing about this kind of stuff and so forth.  They particularly gave me shit for saying that Mustaine had gone of the deep end on the right side of the political spectrum.  Well, I would like to correct people who fought against me on this point.  For those who aren’t aware, Mustaine got pissed off at a journalist recently for basically turning a 25 minute interview into a 5 minute clip about Dave’s gripes about the whole Metallica fiasco.  You know, the whole “I got kicked out of the band for assaulting my bandmate ’cause he kicked my dog” story.  Some of us (myself included) absolutely don’t give a shit.  Who. Fucking.  Cares.  Right?  I mean, dude hasn’t been in Metallica since…  Well, as far as the majority of fans are concerned, ever.  He wasn’t even on Kill ‘Em All and the majority of fans don’t have anything older than that anyway.  So who cares!

So the whole interview of Dave Mustaine v. Norwegian Journalist was released, and I decided to watch it since I do a metal blog.  You know, what’s El Crazy Mustaine up to these days?  See, here’s thing thing.  I can’t interview the guy myself because Roadrunner has decided that my blog (despite the fact that it is now getting thousands of views a week and outshining itself all the time) isn’t good enough to get onto their promo list and therefore I can’t interview Mustaine myself.  This is a big access game and unfortunately, I don’t have that access.  So, as much as I’d like to interview this guy and actually delve into his political beliefs, I won’t be allowed to.  It’s a big game of access and apparently AngryMetalGuy.com isn’t cool enough for the Roadrunner folks.  Which is too bad, since it sounds like Mustaine really, really wants to talk about this shit.  But rant aside, that means that I’m just going to have to spout back what I heard here, and this is great.

First, to prove my point.  Dave starts talking about “the endgame document” and 9/11 conspiracies on the Internet.  Making use of a common logical fallacy, he says “Alex Jones … puts forward really hard theories to rebutt.”  OK, two things: first, just because you can’t disprove something doesn’t mean that it’s a fact.  By Mustaine’s logic, the whole piece from this video where he’s talking about his former drummer thinking that Jesus was an alien should totally work.  Now this idea is patently absurd to Dave, but he’s using the exact same logic to reach his own conclusions.  I can’t disprove that God exists, but does that mean that God exists? Not really.  It just means I can’t disprove it, for a variety of reasons.  But I also can’t disprove that Jesus wasn’t an alien, does that mean that Jesus was an alien?  Well, it must! I can’t disprove it!  Secondly, “Alex Jones,” I thought to myself, “why do I know Alex Jones?”  Well, Alex Jones runs PrisonPlanet.com and InfoWars.com, both are highly commercial endeavors that also allow him to pedal his conspiratorial wares.  If you’ve ever done any research on the great American conspiracy theories, such as  about the Bilderberg Group, you’ll know who he is.  Here’s what a cursory investigation (i.e., reading his Wikipedia page) turns up on Alex Jones:

Alex Jones (born Alexander Emerich Jones, February 11, 1974) is a right-wing,^[1][2][3] conservative^[4][5][6][7] American talk radio host and filmmaker. Jones, however, views himself as a libertarian, not a right-winger,^[8] and calls himself a paleoconservative.^[9] In a promotional biography he is described as an “aggressive constitutionalist.”^[10][11] His syndicated news/talk show The Alex Jones Show, based out of Austin, Texas, airs via the Genesis Communication Network over 60 AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations across the United States and on the Internet.^[12] His websites include Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.^[13]

Mainstream news sources have referred to him as a conspiracy theorist.^{[14][15][16][17][18]} Journalist Michelle Goldberg has stated in The New Republic that Jones represents “an old strain of American conservatism–isolationist, anti-Wall Street, paranoid about elite conspiracies–that last flowered during the John Birch Society’s heyday.”^[19]

A right-wing conservative dude who spends a lot of time pushing out ideas about the Amero and things of that sort.  He basically believes that we don’t have a valid government and that our government, and well, actually the coming WORLD GOVERNMENT is going to insert chips into each and every one of us, and control us with our money.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, it’s an end of days kind of conspiratorial orgy that roots back to conservative Christian concepts of the Number of the Beast being a barcode and number that we’re all going to have and so on and so forth.

As for the Endgame document that “mysteriously disappeared,” according to Mr. Mustaine, it took me about 3 minutes to “find” it again (I’m sure he’ll be happy to know).  It didn’t actually disappear, it’s available through Wikipedia and through the ALCU’s website (http://www.aclum.org/ice/documents/endgame.pdf) and it is listed by the ALCU as a concern in regards to immigrants.  In fact, the Orwellianally named Operation Endgame (which is a terribly scary name, one must admit), is not at all about rounding up American citizens and putting them in camps, it is in fact about rounding up immigrants and kicking their asses out of the United States.  Now whether or not you think that this is a fascist policy it a) doesn’t appear to actually be happening, b) doesn’t actually relate to American citizens and c) doesn’t support that we’re all going to be fitted with RFID chips and told to suck the government line.  Nor does it seem that everyone is going to be ordered to report to camps any time soon, either, despite the scare tactics of certain organizations.

Mustaine then goes on to cite the movie Zeitgeist which has captured the imaginations of many young people with Internet access in the States, but is probably the most ridiculously poorly reasoned and thought out films ever made.  The sourcing is terrible.  They use pretty much no one of consequence or with any standing anywhere in the film, they combine three completely different trains of thought and try to tie them together into a whole and they push that simultaneously as the government is trying to control you monetarily through the Federal Reserve, the bankers are trying to set up a One World Government or New World Order which is going to enslave everyone in the world. At the same time that this is happening, other groups are working together to work out a never-ending War on Terror which can be used to scale back on civil liberties (an actual concern for any civil rights-minded individual like myself), but in doing that, they’re just working towards sending people to camps for some unknown reason (because really, there’s no good reason given here—every crime and ill-deed has a motivation, what’s the motivation here?)¹

There is, of course, inherent populist appeal in the discussions of money, the Federal Reserve and not allowing the government to control us with money, I admit.  And these things have long been a part of the American collective unconscious, so to speak. The Green Backers, for example, were deeply afraid of bankers² and were highly populistic.  And, as mentioned before, The John Birch Society, one time a mainstay in right wing circles in the US, were ostracized by the conservative movement because they were pushing this concept of elite conspiracies against the masses—something that appeals to the common working man who feels like he’s getting screwed by a system but doesn’t know where to put the blame.  But the problem is that these things are unprovable and sometimes just patently false.  Instead, Alex Jones and other conservatives of this nature, rely on dubious evidence and hearsay to show that we’re headed for DOOM.  There are, of course, many endgames in this for a guy like Jones.. but the most obvious of them would be money.

The point here is that what Dave Mustaine is saying is crazy and he totally gets a pass for it.  Not only that, but it’s absolutely tied to a right wing tradition of conspiratorial views and attitudes, that spawned the militia movement in the 90s and included individuals like Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma City building.  Just because it is now being picked up by left wing social libertarians doesn’t mean that it’s not still founded in right wing, conservative Christian dogma about the end of days and the Antichrist and all that kind of stuff.  It is also a very smart way to undermine the legitimacy of a President, as well.  If you can convince people that the President isn’t really a representative of the people, than it’s not so difficult to convince them that it revolt is the right thing to do.  Of course, I’m not saying that Dave Mustaine himself is interested in destabilizing a government or anything like that.  No, I just think that Mr. Mustaine wants to believe.  But that he’s so brazen about it in interviews and stuff just really amazes me.

Anyway, people of Roadrunner Records: let me interview Dave Mustaine!  Please, please, please let me interview Dave Mustaine!