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?

KEVILL It was awesome! That was only our second time in Europe, and the first time at a festival. We were playing in this tent [WET Stage, with a capacity of 10,000] and there were like 5 or 6,000 people. We were really shocked at how great the audience was. At Graspop this year we played at 12:30 in the afternoon, and there were already like 10,000 people there to see us. We were playing the second stage and it was almost full. I never imagined I would do something like that. It was so ultra massive that it was almost surreal.

Many bands stay on the road, partially because it allows them to make money despite the current trend of people buying less records. Does your touring philosophy reflect this?

KEVILL I think so, yeah. A lot of people know us who haven’t actually bought our albums. How many kids are out there who are just fucking poor and don’t have the money to buy any albums? I mean, if it’s free they’re obviously gonna get it. People are just using the technology available to get what they want. But yeah, I think that the one thing technology can’t replace is a good live show. The way we see it is that, sure, we may not have the best album sales but we stay out there long enough to gain a fan base. You can sustain yourself in a band as long as you have a good fan base. I think the most honest way of getting a fan base is getting out there and giving it your all every night. People will respect that.

Your sophomore album, Waking Into Nightmares, shows a huge improvement in songwriting over your debut album [War Without End, 2008]. Were you guys in a certain mindset when going in to these sessions, or did you have a specific goal?

KEVILL I think we were progressing logically from where we were. It was pretty hectic writing that album because, for me, I was in a pretty bad situation. I just came back from a year of touring, and all of a sudden, I’m sitting at home for two months not knowing what to do with myself. My family was super tense at the time, so I was freaking out. The whole time we were writing the album, I just had a super anxiety attack and I thought we were writing a shitty album.

But once we really started tracking it, I began to really appreciate what we had done and I think we did a really great job. It was interesting, too, because we had to write a record in two months. It was definitely a lot of pressure. After it was all said and done, I just really liked the results and I regained my sanity, which I had definitely lost for a while [laughs] We’re really proud of what we’ve done, given the time constraints.

I wanted to talk about your influences. Where most new thrash bands worship Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, etc., you seem to go in a more underground direction by supporting bands like Demolition Hammer and Sacrifice. What is it about these particular bands that makes you so attracted to them?

KEVILL Well, I think some of the bands you have listed there—especially Exodus and Slayer, which are 2 of my favorite bands—are really great. To me, it’s not about being “underground” or “successful,” it’s about whoever I like to listen to the most. Demolition Hammer is never gonna get the same attention as Metallica but they’ve created two of the most brutal and heaviest albums ever, and that’s why I really respect them. They had riffs that were so assaulting and brutal.

Sacrifice had a really cool way of incorporating a few progressive elements without losing any of the intensity, especially on their second and third albums [Forward to Termination, 1987; Soldiers of Misfortune, 1991 respectively]. Those high screams are just awesome. I mean, those are the basis for my own vocals. [laughs]

Ultimately we’re trying to forge our own sound. What we do is cool because you can say, “This part sounds like this, and this part sounds like that.” But if you also look at the whole picture, and all of our songs, it doesn’t sound like just Slayer. Our songs move around in lots of different territory.

The Los Angeles underground metal scene seems to be a very fertile place for emerging bands. Do you agree with this? What is the L.A. scene like in your own words?

KEVILL It seems like when all of these new thrash bands came out from the area, I realized that all of these young kids seemed to really get into old heavy metal. Somehow, the virus spread. A lot of kids just listen to these old bands and that’s how they want their metal to sound like. Of course, they do their own take on it.

We weren’t the first thrash band in this “new wave,” but we were definitely one of the early ones. We were all excited about what was going on. I mean, people were way excited even when we were just making bad demos. [laughs] There’s still a bunch of new thrash bands coming and it’s happening nationwide.

The excitement isn’t quite the same as when it first happened. But the people who were there since the beginning are still here and still excited. Some of these bands that have been at it as long as us are now making albums and some of them are even on record labels. We’ve just been fortunate enough to be touring everywhere. I think there’s a lot of talent out here, too. A lot of great guitarists, drummers, musicians… they’re all here and it’s worth being excited about. I mean, the scene is getting huge all over, but it’s easier to start a thrash band and play shows in L.A. than it would be in, say, Iowa.

You guys have recently reunited with your original bass player, Andy Laux, who is also guitarist John Laux’s brother. Has the transition been a smooth one?

KEVILL The transition has definitely been smooth since Andy was the original bass player on our first album. Out of anyone who has been in and out of the band, he’s definitely the most adaptive to touring, which is a good thing. He’s a really tight bass player and has that really staccato sound. He actually started as a finger player for the first album, but when he came back he decided to use a pick because, according to him, “It sounds like a fucking machine.” [laughs]

Tonight’s show at the Mutant House seems to be a “best-of” show of sorts, with bands like Bonded By Blood, Exmortus and Witchaven. How important is it to still keep in touch with the local, underground scene?

KEVILL We are good friends with those bands, and I’d say we’re at least acquainted with most of the bands from L.A. that play old-school metal. Those underground shows still completely rule, so we definitely want to be a part of them.

Finally, do you foresee an end to the touring cycle for this album any time soon? And when can we expect the sessions for the third album to begin?

KEVILL We plan on touring for this album through summer 2010. The third album sessions are still up in the air, as we gotta write it first. But we are gonna try to present a sharpened, streamlined version of what we have done before that includes some new elements we haven’t tried before. We like to raise the bar on songwriting as high as we can.