A few weeks ago, I was very fortunate to have attended a theater screening of At the Gates’ full-length documentary, Under a Serpent Sky, which is bundled as part of the three-disc box set The Flames of the End (Earache Records).
Not long after the lights dimmed and Under a Serpent Sky started rolling, I knew I was in for a cool ride. Directed by guitarist Anders Björler, the documentary touches on just about everything that you’ve ever wanted to know about this band. It even includes footage taken from rare home videos and the band’s personal pictures.
This insanely thorough film includes interviews every band member (one the film’s most interesting parts is hearing the band discuss the [pre-At the Gates band] Grotesque days and what it was like growing up as one of only a handful of metalheads in the Gothenburg area), but there are also interviews with a lot of key players in the Swedish death metal scene, including Uffe Cederlund from Entombed/Disfear, producer Frederik Nordström, and Mikael Stanne from Dark Tranquillity. In terms of giving fans a proper view of how one of Sweden’s greatest bands and scenes came into existence, there’s just nothing out there that rivals this kind of coverage.
Watch a preview for the DVD here:
Due to the length of the film, we were not shown the epilogue. It was summed up as a “What are they up to now?’ kind of feature. I’m extremely curious to see it once I get my hands on the actual product, though I more or less know what everyone is up to these days…what can I say, I’m a shameless fanboy.
Prior to the screening, I had an opportunity to sit down with Anders for a little chat at his hotel. In the following interview, he talks about the making of this feature, and gives us his final thoughts about the band. By Henry Yuan
The Flames of the End box set not only has the Wacken Open Air performance, but it also contains a full-length feature documentary. Would you say that this is a celebration of At the Gates as opposed to just being the “final nail in the coffin”?
ANDERS BJÖRLER When we originally talked about this, the decision was to document this story as a present to ourselves. As the project prolonged, I noticed it got bigger and bigger. Everyone soon got involved and it became a giant puzzle, where we were trying to figure out the past and going through hundreds of pictures. We were basically living in the past for a while. We ended up doing some reunion shows and after we got back, I worked on the film for four or five months straight to put the finishing touches on it. It was then when I realized this was an actual feature-length documentary film. I mean, it’s not like a real documentary film, but we’re all very proud of this.
What was the actual process like of putting together the documentary? What was going through your head when you came across some of the footage?
BJÖRLER I had some old stuff from the very beginning. My father had this old VHS camera recorder, you know, the “big boat” [laughs], which he gave to me and I started filming as early as 1989. I started filming Grotesque [the pre-At the Gates band featuring vocalist Tomas Lindberg] and various shows around the Gothenburg area. Even though I had some of this old stuff, I needed help from people all over the world. I mean, I actually got footage from a guy in Jordan. It was footage from a Grotesque rehearsal, which was originally shot by me, but I lent it to someone in the past. 20 years later, he has that copy. I don’t know, but he had it [laughs].
That’s the thing. These videos were traded in the tape trading scene and the bootleg scene, especially the concert footage. Two guys from New York actually filmed the show at the Wetlands in 1996. I mean, I had a lot of footage and pictures but I had to get in touch with everyone from the scene to get more and to get some stories. Of course, you don’t remember everything. [At the Gates vocalist] Tomas [Lindberg] had a lot of ideas and got very involved and we had different members in the past… it’s been such a long time.
What made you and the rest of the band decide to reform the band for these series of shows? Was there any specific event that triggered this decision?
BJÖRLER We had talked about it in the past, actually. We started talking about it in 2002. Adrian [Erlandsson, drummer] was tied up with Cradle of Filth at the time. He wasn’t allowed to do it, basically. When he got out of Cradle, things were looking better. We [along with brother/bassist Jonas Björler] had a very tight touring schedule lined up with the Haunted and Tomas was in school at the time studying to become a teacher and he had other bands on the side.
Since I was the one who quit the band in ’96, (more…)
“We want to speak the truth and keep it as brutal as it is,” says Witchaven vocalist/guitarist Demolition Henry. “We were driving through New York City and we saw that giant board that has the national debt…it’s fucked up! We’re trying to wake people up and show them what’s real. We don’t want to bullshit anyone.”
Combining black metal and politics isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but Southern California’s best-kept secret aim to deliver their far left views through whatever means possible. Through their MySpace bulletins and blogs, Witchaven shed light on every possible mishap in the American and capitalist systems. And what better way to grab people by the ear than with an insane blend of black and thrash metal…a method Witchaven perfectly execute (most recently on the Totalitarian State of War demo compiliation).
The band—rounded out by co-guitarist Jerry, drummer Lerby and newly recruited bassist Jorge—takes the raw metal-rock sound of Venom and injects it with a blasphemous dose of 1349-style black metal and a bit of Discharge-worthy punkish mayhem.
I first encountered Witchhaven on Bonded By Blood’s Masters of Disaster’s tour. They they played on top of a bowling alley here in New York City, and I was instantly hooked. Then, a couple months ago when I got the chance to see them kill everything in their path on their home turf in Montclair, CA, I knew that this is the band to look out for in 2010.
After Witchaven’s half-hour long unholy thrash assault at the Mutant House in Montclair, I caught up with the guitar duo of Demolition Henry and Jerry, and discussed politics, the curative powers of weed, the influence of James Brown and how to make it as an unsigned metal band in the digital age. —Henry Yuan
For those unfamiliar with Witchaven’s history, tell us about how you guys first started out. DEMOLITION HENRY We started back in 2006. We were originally a Venom tribute band that would just play a couple of shows. We actually called ourselves Witching Hour since that’s our favorite Venom song, but we soon found out that some other band already had the name. We decided that a similar name was Witchaven, and we stuck with it. When we first started, it was just me on guitars and vocals and my friend Tommy on bass. We eventually found some members, did a few tours and released a few EPs.
Fast-forward to today and we now have a solid lineup and are ready to release a full-length album in December/January. In the spring of 2010, we’re gonna go on a full-throttle tour of the States where we’re gonna play, party, drink, smoke weed and have a hell of a good time. [laughs]
How did you promote yourselves with no label support? HENRY All we really did was use MySpace, internet forums and things like that. When we released our demos, we usually just let people download them for free. JERRY A lot of it was just word of mouth. HENRY Yeah, just like back in the old days. People just talked about us because they liked us. It’s crazy. Like, our name would just pop up in random forums in these “best new wave of thrash bands” lists. JERRY We would go to places we’ve never been to before and people would recognize who we are. I don’t really know how, but it happens [laughs]
You guys play a unique blend of black and thrash metal. Who are some of your influences, both past and present? HENRY Hands down our influences from the past are Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. A little later on, we started to go in a more Motörhead-style sound. Now we’re incorporating more of a technical sound like Kreator, Necrodeath and Merciless. Some other bands we really like are Aura Noir, Nocturnal Breed, Deströyer 666… Nowadays, we look to a lot of death, black and a lot of punk… You could even call us metal-punk I guess. JERRY A lot of D-Beat and shit’s that not even metal at all, like weird funk shit, James Brown… just everything, you know?
Demolition Henry
A lot of thrash and extreme metal bands are coming out of the L.A. area these days. What makes you guys stand out? HENRY When we write music, yeah, we write thrash, but we’re not trying to recreate anything. We want to progress from what our originators did. Nowadays, everyone wants to write the same kind of thrash with the same intro, same riffs, but we’re trying to do something different. We’re thrash, but we have so much more in the music on top of that.
The L.A. scene seems to have a real unity to it. When you guys were out on the road, how did the other scenes across the country stack up against it? HENRY Every scene seems to be the same to me. There’s a unified scene in metal in general. You can always expect a great time when you go to a metal show. I guess a good or bad time, depending if your nose is broken or not. [laughs] JERRY I’ve also noticed that everyone in a scene knows each other, much like here. When we play a show, we will always see familiar faces, even if we’re in Portland or something. It’s the same exact thing but with different faces. It’s the same with Texas, or Boston, or wherever. HENRY Every scene out there is keeping it true and they’re only getting bigger. A lot of younger kids are coming out, too. We’ll be out on the road for a few months and when we return, we’ll see those same kids with long hair and they’re rocking the denim. It’s awesome because it’s finally spreading! Realistically, there are a lot of posers, too, but you know what? (more…)
California’s Warbringer are not only a leading force in the new wave of thrash metal, they also just may be the genre’s best example of a true working-class metal band. If you’ve been to any “major” heavy metal concert this past year, chances are you’ve caught their set. They’ve shared the stage with bands like Nile, Swallow the Sun, Finntroll, Kreator, Obituary, Agnostic Front, Slipknot and more. Which is all to say: these guys aren’t shy about paying their road-dog dues.
I’ve seen these guys at least four or five times in the New York City area. So when I had the opportunity to travel out west to catch their Halloween set at the Mutant House in Chino, California, I figured I knew what to expect. I was wrong.
The band headlined the annual Thrashoween gig, which also featured Witchaven, Bonded By Blood and Exmortus, in a location that was quite literally a converted chicken coop. The locals completely packed the place, and when Warbringer ripped into their set, which featured cuts from their latest effort Walking Into Nightmares(Century Media), the place went nuts. Talk about witnessing the power of home-field advantage.
But before the chicken-coop onslaught, I sat down with Warbringer frontman John Kevill for a little chat, during which we talked a bit about the American Vs. Europe scenes, opening for Megadeth and why it’s important for a young band to hit the road…and hit it hard. —Henry Yuan
First off, I want to congratulate you guys on getting an opening slot for Megadeth. Is it true that the band personally invited you guys to play?
JOHN KEVILL Oh, thanks man! Well, we were supposed to be opening for the entire tour but obviously, it didn’t happen so now we’re only doing a week’s worth of shows. Dave Mustaine originally wanted this band Arcanium on, and we’re only filling in for the dates Machine Head can’t do. Still, we’re opening for Megadeth! We’re actually gonna be second on those shows. [laughs] I can’t really tell you if Dave Mustaine actually knows who we are or not, though it would be cool if he saw us and went, “Fuck yeah! Those guys are awesome!” We’ll see. I heard a lot of things about him from both ways. I’d love to meet him and tell him, “Hey man, thanks for making music that rules.”
You guys have been on the road constantly for a few years now. Looking back, do you feel that experience influenced your writing on Waking Into Nightmares?
KEVILL Not really. We’ve toured with all kinds of bands, from Kreator to Nile to Suicide Silence, and we’re not that influenced by them. Our attitude is that we’ll tour with any band even if the music isn’t exactly the same as ours. It works out great this way because kids want to come out to shows to have a good time anyway. Like with the Finntroll show: not everyone there went strictly for folk metal. But we had a really good time on that tour and so did the fans. We got ourselves out to an audience that wouldn’t hear of us otherwise. As long as the opportunity’s good, we’ll play with anybody. That said, I think Adam [Carroll, guitar] went on a bit of an Exodus binge after we first toured with them.
What were some of the highlights and low points of some of the tours you have been on? Any specific shows/tours that sticks in your memory?
KEVILL Hm, highlights… a lot of the Kreator tour, for sure. It was Kreator, Exodus and us, and we were the three thrash bands on the tour so it worked out perfectly with the crowd, who were mostly thrashers and raged for sure. They were some of the biggest and craziest shows we ever did. Lowest points? There was one show in Danville, Virginia, where we played to just two people. Two people, man.
Woah, what happened there? KEVILL It was one of those shows that we did coming out of a tour. If we end a tour on the east, we’ll play a few shows on the way back, so it’s not a straight drive back. Sometimes, those are the worst shows, the routing shows, because it’s basically you and whoever the promoter picks. Once in a while they’ll do a good job. But sometimes those “off-market” places can be disastrous. But the two people who came out in Danville knew who we were, and they raged. Hat’s off to those two people: you gave us a show! [laughs]
Having played across North America as well as in Europe, do you see any notable differences in terms of audiences, scenes, organization, etc.?
KEVILL Yeah, I kinda do. The European metal fans are a little more, well, serious about metal. They generally know their stuff and there’s a more die-hard metal audience. In the states, there seems to be more kids at the shows. That’s good, too, because these guys are just getting into metal and are really excited about it. But really it just depends: We’ve had both great shows and bad ones in Europe. Oh, and in Europe, they have those huge festivals, which are pretty much an institution at this point. Like, they can get all these metal bands for a four-day extravaganza to play for thousands of people…and it actually happens!
Do you feel that those festivals happen over there because it’s more accessible geographically whereas it’s much more difficult to get around here in America?
KEVILL I think it depends. I mean, if you have a festival in a really populated area, I think it’ll work because, including the areas around it, the population density is super high. In Europe, indeed you can get around easily, as we did last year when we were driving laps around Germany. It takes about 10 or 11 hours to drive from one side of the country to the other, and Germany is pretty much one of the biggest countries in Europe. You can get across the Netherlands in like a few hours, you know? Compare that to here, like, if there’s a festival in the east coast and you’re from California, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, etc., you have to go a much longer distance just to get there.
What was it like to have played in the world’s biggest heavy metal festival, Waken Open Air? (more…)
John Baizley Live. Photo by Show Heart Photography.
Baroness singer/guitarist John Baizley recently spent a few days in NYC to promote his band’s third album, Blue Record. We took the opportunity to invite Baizley up to our studios for a little chat to hear what’s been going on with his progressive hardcore act since our last meeting.
Below the jump, watch Baizley talk about dealing with increased expectations, new producers and, um, journalists who ask questions about hidden wieners in his artwork. (more…)
All things old are new again, or so the adage goes. It seems this statement also holds weight in the realm of metal, as evidenced by today’s resurgence of the classic thrash of Eighties titans, Slayer, Metallica, Exodus and Overkill by bands like Municipal Waste, Evile and Toxic Holocaust.
So it was only a matter of time, I guess, before the kids jumped back even further for inspiration, to the blueprint for all things heavy, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with bands like Diamond Head, Judas Priest, Angel Witch and Motörhead.
Enter Cauldron—the young Canadian heavies who un-apologetically worship at the NWOBHM altar. “We’ve been playing this style of music way before the resurgence of the traditional NWOBHM thing,” says Cauldron guitarist Ian Chains. “And you can expect us to be playing this long after this phase loses its cool.”
On September 18, 2009, when Cauldron—also featuring drummer Chris Rites and bassist Jason Decay—arrived at Brooklyn’s Europa Club, for the first annual September Slaughter Thrashfest (which featured thrash legends Whiplash and At War), MetalKult took the opportunity to catch up with Chains. Because we’re a high-class operation, and Europa’s backstage is shit for interviews, we had our chat in the next quietest spot available, which turned out to be right smack in front of a Brooklyn police station.
In the following Q&A, Chains discusses Canadian metal (read: Anvil), Cauldron’s debut album, Chained to the Nite (Earache Records) and spreading the heavy metal gospel until the end. —Henry Yuan
METALKULT You guys have been pretty active about blogging all the tour’s misadventures on Cauldron’s MySpace page. Any juicy stories that didn’t make the blog?
CHAINS Oh, there are tons of stories that don’t make the blog because we’re so lazy that we don’t update it!
METALKULT The tour is supposed to be you guys and Sweden’s Enforcer. However, tonight you’re playing with Whiplash and At War as well. Are you a fan of these legendary bands?
CHAINS I think tonight will have one of the better turnouts of the tour. But, honestly, I wouldn’t say I’m a Whiplash or At War fan. I mean, I’ve listened to them, but it’s just not my thing.
METALKULT In the liner nots for Chained to the Nite, you have a message to Mercyful Fate fans [“Message to Mercyful Fate fans: we know, don’t worry about it!”]. As a guitar player, was Hank Sherman a major influence on your playing and songwriting?
CHAINS He’s definitely an influence. But as far as that message goes, it’s quite cryptic. A friend of ours pointed out some similarities when listening to some of the early mixes and we just threw that in there as a joke. But yeah, I love Hank Sherman. I love his band before Mercyful Fate [The Brats] and I actually love his band after Mercyful Fate [Fate]. He’s got a pretty diverse catalog. My main influences as a guitar player are John Sykes [Tygers of Pan-Tang, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake], Wolf Hoffman [Accept] and Adrian Vandenberg [Whitesnake].
METALKULT Canada has a very respected music scene, with bands like Rush, Sacrifice, Slaughter, Despised Icon and, of course, Anvil. Are metal fans up there still showing strong support for the scene?
CHAINS Not really. I’ve seen Anvil play to 10-15 people, literally. But since that movie came out, I’ve heard they’re drawing bigger crowds. People elsewhere really appreciate Anvil, and other classic Canadian bands. But for Canadians, it’s like, “Oh, another Anvil gig? Eh, I probably won’t go.”
METALKULT Let’s talk gear for a moment. What are you using for this tour? Why is this the right sound for you and the band?
CHAINS My main guitars are a black Gibson Flying V ’67 reissue and a white with black pinstripe Jackson USA Rhoads V. My amp setup is a a 1981 [Marshall] JCM800 with JCM900 cabs. The JCM800 is modded with a little extra gain.
METALKULT Those original JCM800s are the shit.
CHAINS Yeah, and I only paid $600 for it! I’ve had it for 10 years. I also use a Boss DD-2 delay pedal and an MXR Phase 90 phaser pedal, which I use for some solos.
METALKULT As far as metal trends go, it seems many of the younger kids these days are paying more attention to the technical side of metal, often at the expense of true, raw heavy metal. What is your take on this?
CHAINS Well, as far as people only getting into the technical side of things, I can only say that we’re just not that into it. We’re interested in good songs. Of course, I like good guitar solos and guitar playing, but I also don’t want to listen to something overly technical and boring.
METALKULT I gotta admit, the cover for your debut is one of the truest covers I’ve seen in a while, not to mention one of the most provocative. Who came up with the concept?
CHAINS [laughs] Jason came up with the concept years ago, even before most of the songs were written for the album. It was before Earache was even interested in the album, and we shot our own version of the cover with our own money. The photos came out pretty misguided and lacked any sort of direction. When Earache came along and saw the cover, they just hated it. So they hooked up their own model and their own concept. It was shot in England, and we weren’t even there. They also mentioned that certain retailers in the states, like Best Buy, might not carry the album. So we ended up having to pick an alternate photo for the sleeve. I think the cover looks almost identical to The Rods’ Let Them Eat Metal. But yeah, I’m okay with both covers. No big deal.
METALKULT Cauldron played the one of Germany’s most prestigious heavy metal festivals, Keep It True Festival, where you shared the stage with legends such as Diamond Head and Sabbat. What was that experience like?
CHAINS That was our first time our band played in Europe. We met a lot of cool people over there. I didn’t see Diamond Head play—because I was extremely hammered. [laughs] But I heard the power got cut, which must have sucked. Our buddies Twisted Tower Dire also played, and we did a few shows with them after the festival. We also hung out with Lääz Rockit, who were really cool guys. Bullet, who were really good friends with, played right after us. We’re really good friends with those guys, and we recently played in Sweden in a festival called Muskelrock, which is at Bullet’s amusement park.
METALKULT Wait, Bullet has their own amusement park?
CHAINS Yeah, they own this abandoned amusement park from the Sixties and put on shows there. It’s got good sound, and Bullet always get cool bands.
METALKULT Finally, what’s Cauldron’s plan after this tour wraps?
CHAINS We head back to Toronto for a few weeks and then we’re doing a week-long tour with Wolf in the U.K. We’re trying to tack on a few dates with Enforcer in Scandinavia, too. Then after the European run, on November 6, we will go on a six-week tour opening for Municipal Waste here in the States. Some bands on that tour will only be on there for just a week, but we’re gonna be there for the whole thing. It’s gonna be awesome.
“I don’t wanna talk about hardcore anymore. I’ve been doing it for all these years! ” says Black Anvil bassist/vocalist Paul Delaney with a laugh. Having spent 12 successful years with prominent Long Island crew Kill Your Idols (who disbanded in 2007), Delaney decided it was high time to go down a grimmer musical path and founded the decidedly darker extreme metal act Black Anvil, which is rounded out by fellow Kill Your Idols alums Gary Bennett on guitar and Raeph Glicken on drums.
According to Gary, the roots for the project stretch all the way back to his hardcore days. “We’ve been talking about starting a metal band while on tour [with KYI] for all these years, making ridiculous song titles and shit just for laughs,” he says. “But now we’re finally able to do this.”
Thanks to their new partnership with Relapse Records, who are reissuing BA’s 2008 Monumentum Records debut Time Insults The Mind, Black Anvil have been steadily gaining momentum. They so impressed black metal lords Marduk when they opened for the Swedes’ Spring ’09 tour that Black Anvil were tapped for select dates on Marduk’s upcoming North American onslaught.
MetalKult recently caught up with the band at their rehearsal space where Black Anvil discuss their metal upbringing, the Brooklyn extreme music scene and receiving hails from Darkthrone’s very own Fenriz. —Henry Yuan(more…)
Guitarists Terrance Hobbs and Guy Marchais from New York extreme metallers Suffocation recently dropped by MetalKult’s Manhattan headquarters to talk about their latest record, Blood Oath (Nuclear Blast).
In the following interview, the guys discuss their place in New York Death Metal history, the band’s mid-Nineties breakup and how Eighties thrash influenced Suffocation’s ripping hardcore metal attack.
When California thrashers Bonded By Blood set out on the Masters of Disaster tour this spring, with fellow SoCal metallers Exmortus and Witchaven, they had no idea just how prophetic the tour name would turn out to be.
“When we were driving through Alabama, we got pulled over and these cops ended up arresting our roadies [for no reason],” says singer Jose “Aladdin” Barrales of one of the tour’s early glitches. “Obviously, when a bunch of redneck cops see a group of longhaired Hispanics driving by…things are gonna happen [laughs].”
So when Bonded By Blood found out that their gig at Bay Ridge, Brooklyn’s country-themed Lonestar Bar and Grill had been cancelled—the venue cited “safety concerns”—they weren’t all that surprised. “We were supposed to play this show and all the guy said was, ‘Oh, we can’t do it’, ” says Barrales shaking his head. But in true DIY fashion, Bonded By Blood made the best of the situation, and hustled up a new venue: Maric Lanes bowling alley in Queens, NY.
+++ The About-To-Be-Thrashed Maric Lanes Bowling Alley +++
MetalKult had our ears to the rails on this one, and we’re sure glad we did. Not only did we get to witness BBB deliver the most vicious of cuts from their debut Feed the Beast (Earache Records)—at a bowling alley—but we got to catch up with Barrales and guitarists Alex Lee and Juan Juarez, drummer Carlos Regalado and bassist Ruben Dominguez to discuss the finer points of tour snafus and delicious regional cuisine, as well as just where BBB fit into Los Angeles’ rich thrash history. —Henry Yuan
Tonight’s show is free. Is that in an effort to get people to come out to the shows during the current recession?
JOSE BARRALES Not really. [The promoters] just asked us if we wanted to play a free show here and our reaction was, “Fuck yeah!” [laughs]
I heard you guys were supposed to play in a western bar in Brooklyn. What’s the story there?
BARRALES We posted on our MySpace saying we needed a show and we got a bunch of responses. A local band was like, “Well, we can get you a show here.” They got it, but from what we were told the venue canceled it because they didn’t think it was safe or something. They never had any metal bands play there before, so I guess they were scared that there would be chaos or something.
+++ Singer Jose “Aladdin” Barrales Laying Down The Law +++
Your debut album, Feed the Beast, has been out for about a year now and has been getting some good attention from fans and critics. Were you surprised by the response?
BARRALES Yeah, I mean you’re always gonna be surprised. It’s actually scary when people are like, “Fuck, this is badass.” But that’s cool.
When you were younger you must have thought about what it’d be like to put out a record and tour. Now that you’ve achieved that, what’s the most unexpected aspect of your current situation? Do the dreams live up to the reality?
DOMINGUEZ That’s kinda a rude question! [laughs] But nah, I never thought about touring when I was a kid. BARRALES When I first started the band, I thought we would break up in like a year. [laughs] I’ve been in a lot of bands that just break up. When this band started to get a lot of attention, it was like, “Yeah! There’s gonna be a lot of touring.” And of course, you have the dream that it’s gonna be just like how you see bands like Anthrax and Metallica going to all of these places and getting all of that attention. We’re nowhere near that level, but it’s still pretty cool.
+++ Barrales With Guitarist Alex Lee +++
Coming from L.A. area, and knowing the area’s rich history in thrash and punk, do you feel pressured to live up to your thrash forefathers?
BARRALES I don’t know about the rest of the band, but I do want to live up to those legendary L.A. bands and represent our city like those legends. They’re still legends to me and we still look up to them as such. I talked to people in bands such as D.R.I. and they’re like, “Yeah, you guys are badass!” For them to say that, it’s like, “What the fuck!” [laughs]
Lately there’s been a huge interest for “old-school” thrash, especially the early/mid-Eighties California thrash scene. There have been so many young bands all over the world that are supposedly revitalizing the genre. What sets Bonded By Blood apart from the rest of these bands?
BARRALES When we first started we didn’t say we were gonna play thrash. We were just a bunch of kids playing metal because there wasn’t really any metal in our city. We’re just a bunch of people who are into different types of metal and we got together and made our own thing. A lot of people are like, “Oh, you guys are thrash because you play fast.” But I think it’s really all our different influences that makes this music. DOMINGUEZ We didn’t think like, “We wanna make this kind of music.” We just made music. BARRALES Yeah, I think that’s exactly what sets us apart. We’re so influenced by different shit and we try to put our different tastes into the same thing. Like, these guys [points to Alex Lee and Juan Juarez] are into the guitar thing and I’m really into punk. Like, I try to put my own little thing into it to make it sound like this. I think with other bands, they just say they’re “thrash” and only do that. But we just want to make our own music.
+++ Bonded By Blood, Exmortum And Witchaven Posting Up +++
On the subject of classic thrash, which of the Big Four is your favorite?
EVERYONE Slayer! Megadeth! BARRALES And Anthrax! DOMINGUEZ It’s really a hard choice [laughs]
And I’m sure you guys have listened to Death Magnetic…
EVERYONE [disappointing sounds and laughter] REGALADO I mean, it’s good when you’re shit-faced.
Dominguez But everything is! [laughs] BARRALES I think they did it because they see all of this revival stuff and they want to cash in on it.
Where do you see thrash metal five years from now?
BARRALES I still see people playing it just like it never really left. Everyone said thrash died in the Nineties, but there were bands like Tankard still playing it. As long as there are people that still like it and play it&emdash;even if it’s not as popular as it is now—thrash will always be around.
So I’ve been hearing about your obsession with pizza. You’re in the pizza capital of the U.S., so you must be stoked.
[Everyone laughs] BARRALES We’re actually gonna go try the pizza after this. Everyone’s saying how New York pizza is the best and of course the Ninja Turtles are from New York and they eat the pizza, so we gotta try it!
Since we’re talking about food, you come from Southern California, which is famous for the great tacos. Who has the best tacos?
[Everyone laughs] DOMINGUEZ My mom [laughs] BARRALES There’s this authentic Mexican restaurant in Pomona called El Patio that’s so good.
If someone asked you what he or she could expect from the L.A. metal scene, what would you tell them?
BARRALES I think it’s stronger there than in a lot of states. Everyone just hangs out everywhere. DOMINGUEZ The Black Castle is a hangout. BARRALES Yeah, but they don’t have thrash shows there anymore because people destroyed it. It was definitely a cool local hangout and a cool venue. When we played there it was insane.
It seems to me that thrash and crossover are synonymous with skateboarding, especially with bands like D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies. Do any of you skateboard?
BARRALES I think at one point, everyone skates. California is like “Skateboards R’ Us”. When I was growing up, everyone I knew skated. I even saw gangsters riding skateboards. [laughs] I don’t really know how or why it goes with metal, but it just does.
Finally, what can Bonded By Blood fans who haven’t yet seen you guys expect from your live shows?
BARRALES It’s like an orgasm for your ears…and eyes. [laughs] I don’t know, dude. You just gotta come and check us out! REGALADO A lot of people have told us that we’re pretty clean. DOMINGUEZ Man, I’m always dirty on the road. Hell, I’m just dirty all the time [laughs] BARRALES So to sum up, we’re all about good shows and dirty orgasms. [laughs]
With an unfuckwithable pedigree that includes time spent playing in St. Vitus, the Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, the Hidden Hand and Shrinebuilder, guitarist Scott “Wino” Weinrich has helped define the modern stoner doom metal sound.
To celebrate Wino’s first ever solo record, Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord Recordings), we brought the underground legend into our NY headquarters for an in-depth Q&A. Check out the following clips where Wino talks about the high points of his 25-year-and-counting career: (more…)
In the following interview, filmed at our NY studios, singer Johan Hegg, guitarist Johan Söderberg and bassist Ted Lundström speak about a range of topics including Amon Amarth’s move away from traditional death metal, Sweden’s pagan history, Norse mythology and the themes behind their new album, Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade).
