“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? They’re better than the regular people walking around on the street not knowing what metal is anyway.

What were some of the highs and lows of the Masters of Disasters tour?
HENRY Some of the highs were all of the great shows, all of the great people that we met and all of the cool bands that let us stay at their house. We met so many great people on the road. The lows were always being broke and having to go to Wal-Mart.
JERRY Being hungry sucks, as well as not having the comforts of home, like showering whenever you want or taking a shit whenever you want.
HENRY But it’s cool, though, because when it comes down to it, there really wasn’t a “low”. We had a blast overall. We did what we wanted to do. We were like a pack of wolves traveling around the States. Even if we were fighting and hating with each other, we’ll smoke a bowl thirty minutes later and we’re hugging and laughing.
JERRY Once we roll a blunt, it’s all good. [laughs]

How important is it to play live, especially when a band is extremely underground with no support from record labels?
HENRY I think playing live is the essential part for any band. If you can’t hold your own playing your own music live, you might as well not play music. Nowadays, everything in the world is changed thanks to the internet. People chop up songs with ring tones, download and do all of that unnecessary bullshit. They listen to songs individually rather than listening to them as full albums. People just don’t understand recorded music anymore.

In a live situation, however, there’s no bullshitting. It’s real and there’s real energy. You see kids stage diving and circle pitting. It is essential for us, especially since we’re not a signed band. We have to play at our best and have great energy. The connection between the crowd and whatever’s happening onstage…it’s just essential. I think that’s the reason why we’re getting so popular.

Lyrically, what are you trying to convey? Are there any issues that you feel strongly about that you want to inform your fans?
HENRY Of course, since we started out as a Venom tribute band, we went along with the very Venom-like topics like Satan and all of that. You know, just tongue-in-cheek type shit. Eventually, we came to our senses and realized it’s all been done before. We wanted to be original so we threw in the punk influence where the lyrics were extremely left-wing and liberal. We’re almost anarchist with the way we see things.

I personally think the entire American system is fucked up. I don’t know if you know about the monarchy and the Federal Reserve, or how every dollar is taxed. All of our artwork for our upcoming albums and shirts will feature real pictures and real situations: real death. We want to make people realize that this shit is real and it’s not a fucking dream. You’re not going to be stuck in a fucking rave for your entire life! This is coming to your doorstep, and you better wake the fuck up now. That’s what we’re saying.
JERRY And the way I see it, with all these bands talking about Satan and religion, that shit is just a story. Religion is a story. I think it’s better to talk about something that you can actually see and something that is actually happening. “Reality over fiction,” is what I say. Our lyrics are just a reflection of what our society really is. A lot of people try to ignore all of the bad parts. They want to go about their lives thinking everything is fine. They don’t even bother to look around and see what the fuck is going on.

There are a lot of metal fans today that complain when bands start making political statements. Do you feel metal and politics belong together?
HENRY I think metal and politics are a beautiful combination. I listen to a lot of reggae and punk, and those types of music are just protests. When I’m kicking it and listen to these bands, I really listen to what they have to say. It just gives me the chills. All of the hairs on my arms stand up, because all of the wars that these bands talk about are true. I personally get more satisfaction out of something that is true rather than a folklore story. Don’t get me wrong, that storytelling thing can be great. Iron Maiden did it, as well as tons of other bands. And that’s the thing – everyone has done it. Sure, a lot of punk bands talk about politics, but in our metal scene, it’s pretty rare. There aren’t many thrash or even black metal bands to my knowledge that write or talk about these extreme political views.
JERRY Music is a way to express yourself. Whatever is on your mind, you can express it through music. We believe in what we say and we express it through music. The fact that people’s morals and priorities are based on materialism is just fucked.
HENRY We want to open minds. We want to pull people’s faces out of the TV screen, because you know what? Your life is just not happening, man. I mean, check this shit: People consider success to be having a wife, a house and a good job! People die happy because they can say, yeah, I have a wife, a house and a good job. Well fucking A – you did shit in your life! That’s the way I see it.
JERRY Good job – you have a wife, a house and a good job. You made it [laughs]
HENRY Real living is using the information and knowledge that’s available for the benefit of yourself and society. That’s real living. [laughs] I guess we’re just a bunch of hippies that play extreme music.
JERRY Neo-hippies… [laughs]

You guys recently played with Deströyer 666 and have shared the stage with legendary bands such as Possessed. Were there any shows that really stick out in your memory? What other bands have you played with that you consider to be your heroes?
HENRY Fuck, we played with a lot of bands that we consider our heroes. Every show that we play with bands like the ones you mentioned leaves a huge mark in our minds. It’s a milestone, you know? It’s an extreme honor to share the stage with bands we grew up listening to and made us want us to do this. I still can’t get over how we played with a band like fucking Exodus! We also managed to share the stage with legends like Hirax, Destruction, Exumer, Heathen… there were so many.

So far, your catalog only consists of demos, EPs and compilations. You mentioned that you guys are working on a full-length now. Can you tell us more about that?
HENRY Yeah, it’s true that our catalog so far is a jumbled mess of music. [laughs] We’re recording during the latter part of the fall and we’ll hopefully have a full-length out December or January. I feel that with this coming release, we’re going all the way and I think we’ve grasped our true sound. We’re going to toss in some extreme black metal, some insane D-beat and of course, a lot of thrash. We aim to separate ourselves from a lot of bands, even the legendary ones. If people like it, awesome and if not, too bad. [laughs]

We want to release it on vinyl, and do a limited hand-numbered press, I guess a thousand of them. Hopefully we can pull it off. If we’re able to do a second press, that’ll be another milestone. I don’t know how to explain the new album…it’s just going to be Witchaven.

How important are packaging and limited-runs these days, with all of the downloading that’s going on?
HENRY I have a feeling CDs won’t be around as long as we think. I believe that for the true metal fans, and even music fans in general, there’s always going to be something special about holding the big vinyl in their hands. It’s very euphoric looking at the huge art. Even taking the sleeve out and actually looking at the lyrics with the pictures, it’s an experience in itself. The sound stands on its own, as well. Vinyl will definitely be around, especially in metal. It will outlast the CD for sure. There’s also something special about putting the needle on the record. With vinyl, you usually don’t skip a song. You start from the top and you just let it play. That’s how I think you should listen to metal albums. When I put on a Maiden record, it’s like a roller coaster of fucking music! It’s not like a bunch songs that was randomly put together.

Finally, along with the upcoming full-length, what are Witchaven’s plans for 2010?
HENRY As soon as the album’s out, we’re going to tour the earth. That’s the main goal. We want an album that satisfies not only us, but our true fans as well. We’re going to tour America and we’re in talks about touring South America. Hopefully this will open up doors to tour Europe and maybe even Japan, which would be awesome. It would be a huge honor and blessing to be able to play our music overseas. That would be incredible.

Who knows, maybe when you play Japan, you’ll even open up for Abigail.
HENRY Man, Abigail’s sick! That’ll be awesome for sure! When we got the gig with Deströyer 666, it almost felt like it wasn’t happening because it was so unreal. It would be absurd to be able to play with Abigail.