Sunday, May 22, 2011

Interview with MkM of Aosoth!!


E-mail interview conducted in May, 2011.
http://www.myspace.com/aosoth616


WULF: While Aosoth is unmistakably one of the most original and infamous bands leading the charge in this recent explosion of excellent French black metal (including other artists such as Deathspell Omega, Blut aus Nord, Peste Noire, etc.), it is stylistically quite its own beast. “III” is also one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. What were you personally aiming to accomplish with this album?

MkM: As a start, see, those bands you did mention, all are very different in their approach, am just very familiar with DSO myself; yet it seems that at the same time or so, we ended up having releases which would have something similar, more than just the geographic origin of the band.
I doubt that there is really an explosion of french black metal (or nothing compared to how the black legions got worshipped) but there is nowadays a scene. And even a scene at a turning point, wondering how things will go.
Just like we do feel like a void after each release, when “ashes of angels” was released, our previous effort... all the events that occured after (the tour with hell militia, personal issues...) all those series of event did create the climax that made the composition of III happen. Nothing is “marketed”, it does depict a moment of time, one sinister moment of time which is still lasting up to now.
As vocalist for this band, I wanted it to be really a performance & exposure. Just like an Art happening.
Right now, I couldnt even say how the future would be for us, if we would do anything. Just like there is no aim for now, there were no particular aim then, just having to let it out, create the most genuine piece of work at this moment of time, exposing ourselves.


WULF: A common lyrical theme of yours is, according to a recent interview with Metal Maniacs, “praising Satan, excess, and (your) own deviances”. If that is the case, then where does all this hatred and rage that is reflected in your music come from?


MkM: Being non reliable, unstable, lunatic, “negative” (while I’d say “realist”)... Any individual who had to work with me at one point or another do know that I’m not the easiest one to work along with. Lots of tension in the air and that eternal destructive desire. I need to harm what is near, I just walk this path and all makes sense that way for me. Having now more distance allows me not to get swallowed in my own stream, there is no one by my side. I just expose what is inside and turn it into an audio experience, be it with aosoth or antaeus or any other act I was involved in as “writer”/performer.
When reading this question, I do realise I never asked this very important question to the other band members in Aosoth, I shall do so soon, just to get an idea...


WULF: “III” is quite a nightmarish listen. The atmosphere on the album for me clearly evokes death, urban decay, abandoned cathedrals, and nightmarish hallucinations. What images or concepts come to mind for you personally when you create or listen to the music of Aosoth?

MkM: The breathing of the other, watching inside the eye of the victim/partner. Stealing moment, making others last long, feeling one with blood and pulse.
That would be how I would feel myself. But that vision you described seems closer to what the other band members are experiencing through III.
Those are two distincts approach : the music on one side, lyrics on the others. Both combined : that gives such result. With another vocalist and different structures and more “song structure” with chorus and so on, that would have been a very different album. I’d really like that to happen somehow, thus I’d keep “III’ just as my own. Really have a special relation to this release, somehow like unique and not willing to let it go.

WULF: In almost every Aosoth interview I’ve read you’re asked about your involvement with The Order of the Nine Angels. While you’ve stated that you’re not an official member, does the Order have a strong following among other French black metal bands Aosoth is associated with (such as Balrog, Watain, VI, Merrimack, etc.)? I’m not asking for any specific names or bands, of course, but I’m curious as to the prevalence or popularity of this organization and the role it plays, if any, in this specific regional scene.

MkM: To this question, I’ll have to say that I do not have a clue at all !!! Watain being swedish btw, and they are more affiliated to the Temple of the black light if I’m not mistaken.
Might come as a surprise to you, but I am really barely in touch with any individuals from the metal scene, or just anyone in general. I somehow did distance myself for a few years. About the ONA, I do not think that many were into this particular order. But then again, I could be mistaken...
Also you do refer to a “regional” scene : well that seems not too accurate in our case since there is no unity in this scene, which is not a bad thing : suits me perfectly that way.


WULF: I’ve read that the lyrics will be enclosed with the physical album. Unfortunately for me, I only have a digital promo copy of the album. Would you like to explain a little about the lyrics and concepts of “III”?

MkM: Indeed they are, both on lp & cd. They were written in a similar state as the lyrics I once did write for “blood libels”, the last antaeus album in date. Thus very personal and more of an “exposure”... the album is not a gathering of songs as far as I am concerned. There is no “sing along” parts or whatever, more of a performance recorded in one take (vocals wise) and being based on a monologue or “silent” dialog in between two characters. Mostly people are expecting lyrics with themas involving magic, satanism... there this is not as “obvious” and not really fitting the genre. Though it still praises & shows devotion towards the worst/best in us.

WULF: Is there any chance that you will supplement this auditory violence with a visual experience, such as a music video or DVD?

MkM: Highly doubt it. First of all, most of our live conditions are so low that capturing such events wouldnt be worth being witnessed. Also the cost for such release is just beyond anything we could ever afford. Took me years to cover up the cost from the antaeus video, which was at first not even meant to be even used. We had ideas about particular images we would have wanted to add to the audio related to III. Just do not think any of this will ever take place. Even having “band promo picture” is quite impossible, so a video !!


WULF: Now that Antaeus is more or less on hold indefinitely, do you have any other bands or projects you are involved in besides Aosoth?

MkM: No time for anything else at all. Each album is a sacrifice, takes a lot of time and implies involving yourself fully in it. Antaeus will just perform two gigs in the coming months, in June for the deathkult openair festival in Germany and in december for the Rites of Darkness part 3. About bst (guitar player) he has the order of appolyon (signed on listenable) as well as genital grinder (death metal), he’s about to have a split lp. InrVI is mostly busy with VI and should have a full lenght recorded this coming year on Agonia records. Aosoth should record two tracks maybe before the end of 2011.... time shall tell. For each plan we make, many problems rise and turn all into dust.

WULF: That is all the questions I have for you. Thank you again for taking the time to answer these questions. Good luck to you in the future! Anything else you would like to add to the interview at this time?


MkM: Hails to you for the support & having us in your zine.
AMSG
MkM

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Interview with Herr Morbid of Forgotten Tomb!!


E-mail interview conducted in May 2011.
http://www.myspace.com/darknessinstereo

WULF: Congratulations on completing your first full-length album in roughly four years! I believe this to be quite a strong album. How has the reception been for “Under Saturn Retrograde” on your end?

HM: Thanx. You know, there's always someone complaining for something on every new album we release... We can't make everyone happy. We need to be happy ourselves with what we have accomplished with a new album, in the first place. If the others like it, that's great, otherwise it means they are not ready to understand our evolution. We are getting used to be misunderstood and ahead of trends. Most of people start to like our albums 3 years after their actual release-date. It happened the same with the previous album, "Negative Megalomania"... But of course there is also a lot of people who like our newer releases and we're getting a good feedback from both press and fans for the new album. It's still early though to take conclusions, the album has just been released in the USA so we're waiting for responses from there too.

WULF: Normally I prefer to try and figure out reasons for song titles and album titles on my own, but unfortunately my digital promo copy didn’t come with lyrics and I can’t find lyrics anywhere on the internet. Would you care to explain a bit about the album’s mysterious title?

HM: There's some meaning behind the album title-track and lyrics. As you might know, according to astrology the influence of Saturn retrograde has basically a very negative effect on life and personal achievements, and it's partly responsible for failures, pessimism and other negative sides of everyday' life. It is especially negative when it is in your natal chart. I'm also a Capricorn and Saturn is my ruling planet. Basically I used "Saturn retrograde" as a metaphor. It is meant as something like "being born under a bad star". I don't really believe in astrology but I thought the meaning was fitting to represent the sense of oppression and constant bad luck that followed me over my lifetime. The rest of the songs deal with different topics but each one has negativity and hostility as the main themes.

WULF: The album cover is clearly somewhat dark and disturbing, but also quite beautiful. Who is the artist? Would you care to explain your thoughts on the album cover?

HM: The author of the cover is the artist Dani2Hell. I was looking for a suitable cover for the new record, and watching the graphic works she made at that time I was struck by one in particular, so I asked if I could use it and she agreed. I was lucky, because that work suits the emotions portrayed by the album music very well. I then examined several versions of the same design with Dani2Hell and in the end we eventually chose the version that everyone can see now (the one without logo and with darker colors). Also, Dani2Hell had already made the sketches included in the booklet of our "Vol 5: 1999/2009" album, with excellent results, therefore I could say that so far the cooperation has been very fruitful. From my point of view, the figure represented on the front cover is a sort of angel of evil and iniquity, it's the rational embodiment of an irrational wickedness, which is deeply rooted within the human soul. It's pure evilness, that's why that figure on the cover has no visible face... Evil has no face, it's within each of us.


WULF: According to recent interviews you’ve expressed your songwriting being increasingly influenced over the past few years by bands such as Alice in Chains, Down, Acid Bath, etc. Although your cover of The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is quite well-done, I was surprised that you didn’t cover a band that was influential to you that was more “metallic” in style. Would you like to explain why you chose this particular song to cover? Also, since your cover was so well-executed, is there a chance that Forgotten Tomb will continue to cover more songs on future albums?

HM: We actually started this "bizarre covers" tradition on the "Vol 5: 1999/2009" double-album, with a couple of songs from Nirvana and Black Flag, as well as a Black Sabbath intro. They turned out great, so we decided to include another one on this new album. In the first place, I'm a Iggy/Stooges fan, and I like the nihilistic, self-destructive power oozing from that song. Originally I wanted to do something out of "Raw Power", since it's my favourite Iggy/Stooges album and one of my favourite albums of all time, though most of the material was not suitable with the rest of our songs. Also, we have chosen "I Wanna Be Your Dog" because it's more well-known and also because all the cover-versions we've heard from other bands really sucked (including the Slayer' one, yes). When Slayer did that cover they changed the lyrics to some macho-bullshit and I hated it. It was retarded. Iggy Pop hated it too. I think Iggy would like our version instead. I think we gave it an original Punk feeling, it sounds really nihilistic and violent. I even prefer it over the original! This would have been nearly impossible to do with the "Raw Power" songs, 'cause that album is fucking perfect as it is. Btw, we always choose to cover songs that are not strictly Metal 'cause we think it can be more interesting, both for us and for the audience. I mean, would you prefer another Darkthrone or Mayhem cover as all Black Metal bands do? I don't think so. Also, we listen to a lot of "non-Metal" stuff so we find more intriguing to cover songs like those and make 'em sound like one of our own songs.


WULF: Can we look forward to a Forgotten Tomb music video for a song off of “Under Saturn Retrograde”? Personally, I would choose “Reject Existence” because I feel that’s arguably the most catchy song (it’s seriously been stuck in my head for days now!) even though it has a quite negative message. Also, are there future plans for a DVD or anything like that?

HM: Actually there were plans to shoot the video for an edited version of that song. We'll see what happens. Time flies and there are lots of things to be taken care of, so we'll see if we can make it. A live DVD would be really cool too, but again, we'll see what happens before the end of this year. Maybe we'll record another full-lenght album before shooting a proper live DVD. It depends on the success of our new album.

WULF: I’ve noticed that your attitude and style in interviews over the years has changed considerably. I mean no disrespect, but it seems like you’ve become much more “mature”…what I mean by this is that eight years ago, you were strongly advocating suicide and embracing despair and negativity, whereas nowadays it seems like you’ve become somewhat more “laid-back” but still fixated on negativity. I also feel like this is directly reflected in your songwriting. While I haven’t heard earlier Forgotten Tomb albums, according to interviews and reviews it seems like your earlier material was more black metal-oriented…with “Under Saturn Retrograde”, while there is still a black metal influence, it is much more limited, and instead fits more comfortably in its own “depressive rock” style. Do you agree with this? Do you feel like Forgotten Tomb’s sound has matured with you these past few years?

HM: If you read all my lyrics and interviews since the beginning of the band you'll notice they changed and evolved. But of course I don't like a lot of things in life and society, and I'm basically a very negative and pessimistic person. The "leit-motiv" of my lyrics is more or less always the same. Obviously over the years people grow up and evolve, though I always believed in what I said over the years and I don't regret it. The glorification of negativity, death, hatred, pessimism, cynicism, homicide, suicide, abuse and in general of everything that is helpful to destroy human happiness and life is a recurring theme of our albums and imagery, now more than ever. Personal experiences had a role on some of my lyrics in the past but over the years I developed a more mature songwriting. I realized that I'm more useful as a tool to spread negative emotions. Of course there are always my personal thoughts and my vision of life portrayed in my lyrics, but the way of expressing them has changed. In the past some fans just used some of my lyrics as some sort of relief from their personal problems, but I never wanted this to happen. I've been totally misunderstood. I don't want to help people, my lyrics are not propedeuthic. I want to destroy people, I want them to increase their suffering and do harm to themselves and to others. That's why my lyrics have changed over the years. I don't wanna write for myself exclusively, I want the message to be loud and clear to all my listeners. You know, when you say these things and you're 20 years old people use to think you're a teenager trying to act evil, but when you're 30 years old and you still say the same things most probably it means you really mean it. I'll turn 31 this year so go figure... The musical evolution has nothing to do with our concept and attitude, we always listened to other kind of music even when we were more Black Metal-oriented.




WULF: By listening to this latest album, there’s no doubt in my mind that if you were to decide to tour North America you would be quite successful, as “Under Saturn Retrograde” seems like it has a much more accessible sound and wider appeal than many contemporary extreme metal bands. Are there any plans to come over here and wreak havoc?

HM: It's very difficult for bands like ours to play in the USA. We've been all around Europe several times and I'm pretty sure we'll play again quite a lot of gigs there this year, but I don't know about the rest of the world. If there are promoters interested in having us playing in the USA, we'll come of course. Our aim is to play live as much as possible, so I certainly hope to visit some countries where we haven't been before.

WULF: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! Any final words you would like to say?

HM: We're going to release very soon a split 7" with italian band Whiskey Ritual. Both bands will cover 3 songs each by GG Allin. It's gonna be a cool release. Then we'll focus on live-shows/tours and in the meantime I'll start writing some new material for the next album. To all our readers: buy our new album and get fucked up! Follow us through our usual channels: official website, MySpace, Facebook and Reverbnation. Stay Negative!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Interview with V.I.T.R.I.O.L. of Anaal Nathrakh!!


Phone interview conducted on April 22, 2011.
http://www.myspace.com/anaalnathrakh

Special thanks to Jackson "Mankvill" May for helping me out with questions!

WULF: OK, so I hate to start off with questions like this but I'm legitimately curious...how has the reception been so far for "Passion" on your end?

VITRIOL: It's been interesting, actually. There's only been a handful of reviews that I've seen so far because obviously the album's not out yet and the reviews are not creeping creeping out, but (some of the reviews that I've seen) didn't like it very much, which is a little less than ideal when you've made an album, but I've seen quite a number of more positive ones now. So broadly speaking, it's been quite good, there have been a few people that (didn't like it), but that's always going to happen. As for people close to us and everything, a lot of people have been very, very positive about it. A couple of people have said (it's) some the best songs that we've ever done. But yeah, so far, broadly speaking, we're happy. It's more important for us to be happy with the album ourselves because people will say what they like, but it's whether or not you can get on the album yourself that's got to be your guide. We're very happy with it, so that's the most important reaction as far as we're concerned.

WULF: Yeah, I would agree, but I wouldn't agree with the negative reviews. I found "Passion" to be just as fantastic as all the other Anaal Nathrakh albums. So, anyway, I don't know what they're talking about. I was definitely blown away.

VITRIOL: Well thank you, I'm glad you liked it. And it's not like all the reviews were (negative), just a couple, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

WULF: Well thank you, for what it's worth. But anyway, after getting the album repeated listens, judging by the song titles the subject matter on this new album is similar to other common themes on previous Anaal Nathrakh albums. However, were there any themes explored on "Passion" that were considered, lyrically, (as) new territory for the band? 2012 is looming ever-closer, after all...

VITRIOL: (laughs) Yeah, yeah. It is. We haven't got long left. (laughs) Yeah, there were a few new angles but a lot of it, (as) I've mentioned to one or two other people, had to do with a paper I read about the concept of horror, and understanding what horror was as opposed to terror or anything like that, and it has to do with the victim and the experience, becoming aware in the way that they've been changed or by the way they've been corrupted or otherwise altered by the experience. A lot of this stuff on the album is sort of vaguely related to (this) idea. So...

WULF: Interesting. That's pretty fascinating.

VITRIOL: It's more about understanding the way in which the world and things in it and evil out there and everything has an effect on you as an individual, and that effect can be ruinous, but at the same time coming, in some self-disposing way, to
desire it in some ways. So that's particularly the theme of the second song, for example. So, yeah...I could go on for hours if you like, but yeah, those sorts of ideas are kind of new for us. It's a bit of a different spin rather than just "the world's shit and we all deserve to die".
(laughs)


WULF: Right, right...and while I know that Irrumator, or Mick (Kenney) writes all of the music and you write all of the lyrics, I don't want to put words in Mick's mouth, but does he share attitudes or ideas similar to yours that are reflected in Anaal Nathrakh's music?

VITRIOL: Well, it depends in way you mean thoughts and ideas, but obviously, musically we're of like mind. We wouldn't be writing together still after a fair amount of time and still keep coming up with great stuff, so musically we're on the same page. In terms of the more ideological stuff, that's mostly me, but he might be slightly less...I don't know, how could you say it? Wrathfully pessimistic about everything?
(laughs)
But there's a vaguely similar sort of undercurrent that we do share, so yeah, as much as it is Mick writing the music and I do a lot of the writing and the lyrics, there is a sort of permeable barrier between the two of us. We're both compatible with the way the other one does whatever it is that they do. So it is sort of a genuine synthesis, I suppose, you might say. Different, but mutually complementary things. Does that make sense?

WULF: Yeah, that makes sense to me! I was just curious, because especially (by) reading past Anaal Nathrakh interviews and stuff there's definitely a...I don't know...pessimistic...misanthropic...(attitude)? I don't know, that's the sense that I got. I wasn't sure as far as if Mick was equally so, on that level.

VITRIOL: Yeah, he's probably not quite as (inaudible) as I am.
(laughs)
But we're compatible in that way.

WULF: Right, right. So on a quick separate note, what have you been reading recently? Did this play any role, as far as lyrics go, on "Passion"?

VITRIOL: Well, for the past few months I haven't really had much choice about what I was reading because I was doing a university course. So in the immediate past, everything I've been reading has been the philosophy of language and things to do with the definition of happiness and stuff like that. So I suppose, in a way, it does sort of (influence) me a little bit, but no, it's not directly relevant. The stuff I read that's relevant at the time for stuff on the album...I said this in interviews at the time for the last album it was a book called Moment of Freedom, and that was the first book of the trilogy, and one of the songs on this album was influenced by the second book of the trilogy, called Powderhouse. There's also some stuff by a German guy called Max Stirner who was writing in the 1800s or 1830s-40s, and that was the influence on the song "Paragon Pariah". There's stuff about multiple personality disorder and the reintegration of personalities into one core personality. That's what the one with the German title on this album ("Tod Huetet Uebel") is about. So it's more bits and pieces rather than one book or something that had a massive impact and took over the album. It's bits and pieces of various different things, but I've read quite a lot of interesting stuff, I've been lucky to have found it, so the bits and pieces are there and are also fascinating.

WULF: Yeah, I'd love to check out some of the stuff you're talking about, because especially with the multiple personality thing, I've always been really fascinated by that. Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind...what are you studying at the university?

VITRIOL: A Master's degree in philosophy. It's reasonably (inaudible) stuff, but I just find it interesting.


WULF: Me too. I actually just graduated myself...undergraduate degree. I'm not ready for graduate school quite yet, but that's pretty cool!

VITRIOL: What was the undergraduate degree?

WULF: History.

VITRIOL: Alright, OK. That's a (inaudible) for post-grad study if you ever do go onto it.

WULF: Yeah it is. (laughs) I'll probably have to if I do want to do anything.

VITRIOL: (laughs) Yeah, that's the thing.

WULF: So you mentioned, actually, off of "Passion", the German song and unfortunately I haven't taken much classes in German, so if I try to pronounce it I might butcher it, but man, I was curious...how in the fuck did you guys hook up with Rainer (Landfermann) from Bethlehem and Pavor?!

VITRIOL: Crazy voice, isn't it?

WULF: I haven't heard anything (by him) except his vocals on Bethlehem's "Dictius te Necare" but his vocals on that are absolutely insane and I'd say a perfect fit for Anaal Nathrakh's music because it's a much different vocal style than yours but quite intense just the same. So how did this guest appearance come to fruition?

VITRIOL: It was largely the same for us. We heard that Bethlehem album you just mentioned and we thought it was...well, you probably used the best word to describe it, it was really crazy. We've always been fans of what he'd done with that, it was just so out there and so...the (British English) word would be "barmy", essentially it means "crazy", so we just thought, "screw it, we'll just ask him!" So we tried to get ahold of him, and he's not the easiest man to get ahold of, but I eventually managed to track down the band that he's in now, which is a death metal band called Pavor in Germany, and they're a fairly unusual sort of band, they put out like...one EP every eight years
(laughs)
and (inaudible) signed to a record label, they're a fairly individual sort of thing, themselves. I sent an e-mail to the band contact up there on their website saying who we were and that we'd been blown away by his work on the Bethlehem album and some of the stuff he's done since, because he has bits and pieces of his vocals in Pavor even though he's not the main singer, (and asked) "would you be interested in it?" And he came back to us saying "possibly, but I'm going to need to know that it's something I can really get behind and it's something I can totally get on-board with and an idea of" and he asked me to give an idea of what we were thinking of for the song. So we sent him some music back and I sent him this quite long written-out version of the idea I had for the song, and then he replied, saying, "this is brilliant! I love the idea! I've just spent four hours arranging vocal parts for it!" And he just took the idea and ran with it. He just took off. So it was fantastic to have someone that was just so enthusiastic about it. He was blown away by the idea and then he turned around and blew us away back. So yeah, it was just about chatting to him and asking him about the idea.

WULF: Man! Well I think that was brilliant on your part because when I saw that HE was going to be on the album according to the press release, I was like, man...I didn't know of any vocals that he had done besides (his work) with Bethlehem, so I was crossing my fingers, saying "please let this be vocals!" And when that song came on, sure enough, I was like, "that's my man, right there!"
(laughs)


VITRIOL: Yeah, I mean, that's what we were like when we got this track back from him, because obviously we didn't know what he was going to do with it, so we were waiting to hear it ourselves, and then we played it and just thought, "yes! That is EXACTLY what we wanted this man to do! That is brilliant!" And so we loved it, we thought it was great.

WULF: Had he not heard of Anaal Nathrakh before?

VITRIOL: He'd heard the name. He wasn't overly familiar with us, I don't think, but not too long before we asked him we had played a show not in the town he lives in in Germany but not all that far away, and he said one of his friends had been. So he was aware of us.

WULF: I would just be surprised because I would think that if you guys had contacted him he would have just jumped on-board immediately, so that just kind of struck me as weird, but I'm really glad that it all came through.

VITRIOL: I'm kind of glad that it happened the way that it did because it meant (inaudible) when he said, "OK, I might be up for it", and it meant that he was taking it seriously and what we put to him was good stuff. So I'm kind of glad that he wasn't just, "yeah I'll do it!" It was nice to have someone work on the idea a little bit.

WULF: Right. OK, so I've got a couple more questions here if that's OK, because I know that you're probably really busy. If Mick still lives in California and you live in England...you've probably answered this before, but how much time do you spend writing and rehearsing if Mick writes the music and you write the lyrics separately?

VITRIOL: When it comes to making albums we spend not a great deal of time working on stuff. There's pretty much no rehearsing, though, because we put it together in the studio. So Mick writes literally a whole album's worth of music and I prepare...well, I've prepared 20 albums worth of ideas and bits of lyrics and stuff like that, and then we just go in together and do it in the studio at the time. So we can talk over the internet and that kind of thing but we don't particularly need to be physically in the same room until we get to the studio phase of it. For live stuff, obviously it's a bit more difficult, but as it stands at the time he's the only member of the live band who isn't available here in Birmingham where I am, so I just get everyone together and rehearse without Mick until he can get over. But the thing is, not only is he a talented guitarist and doesn't find it difficult to pick stuff up, (but) he wrote the damn songs!
(laughs)
He should have a pretty good idea of how they go, so we (go over the songs) and jam for a couple of days.

WULF: OK, so forgive me if this is wrong, but as far as I can tell, you guys have only one official music video, and so as far as you know, will you be shooting a music video for a song off of "Passion"? How do you feel about music videos?




VITRIOL: I don't know, really. We're not particularly interested in trying to get heavy rotation on MTV or anything. If it happens then I'm sure it's a great thing and I'm sure it's lovely but it doesn't upset if we're not doing that so we don't feel the need to try and push for something like that. But at the same time, it is kind of fun, we did do one for the last album, you're right. The only one. It was just a different creative idea for us because we had to come up with the ideas for it and work with who was shooting it to try and make it what we had our in our heads, which was just a new thing because we weren't used to working in video, so it was cool to have a try. I don't know whether we'll do one for this one. As far as I know, our contract with Candlelight does have a provision to doing one, but we've been so focused on getting the album out and putting a few tour dates together and stuff that we just haven't gotten around to that yet, but it would be nice. It would be cool to do another one if the opportunity comes along. So yeah, fingers crossed.

WULF: Alright, and you mentioned tour dates, so my last question then, would be...I understand that you've got a few dates that are going to be here in the United States, or at least just a couple? Am I mistaken?

VITRIOL: Not yet...we're just in the early stages of working out to do that. At the moment we've got a few dates in the UK, and then we go off into mainland Europe, and that's what we've been doing up till now, but in the past couple of days we've started to figure out whether it's viable to get back to the States because we played in California about six weeks ago or so...so we would like, if it's at all possible, to get back there, but we have no concrete plans yet. Hopefully, but we'll have to see what happens here.

WULF: Alright, well, for what it's worth, if you ever want to come to the Midwest here I know that's probably not in the cards, at least not for this album...
(laughs)
I live smack in the middle of the country, a lot of times bands on limited tours hardly ever make it out here.

VITRIOL: That's one thing that interests me about touring...I like to go to interesting places. To me, America is one big, whole, interesting place because I've never been to most of it, (just) parts of it. But I would like to see the places that bands don't always play. It would be cool. Whether it would be possible, I don't know, but we would be happy to go and play in Kansas or (wherever), but it would be an interesting, different thing to see.

WULF: I was going to joke and ask if you guys were ever coming to Kansas because that's where I am.
(laughs)
Alright man, well that's all the questions I have for you. I know you're probably really busy. Do you have anything else you'd like to say, any last words?

VITRIOL: Not particularly, not particularly. Whatever happens, maybe, you never know, we may turn up in Kansas one day.
(laughs)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Interview with David Gold of Woods of Ypres!!


https://www.facebook.com/woodsofypres


Phone interview conducted on April 11, 2011.

WULF: OK, so I just want to start off by saying congratulations on the success of the "The Green Album"! Also, I've been listening to you guys for a long time, ever since I heard a track that was featured on a Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles (Knuckle Tracks 83 sampler) compilation way back in the day.

DAVID: That's like 9 years later and it's the best 700 dollars we ever spent.

WULF: Yeah, (the track ("Shedding the Deadwood")) was off of ("Pursuit of the Sun & Allure of the Earth"), yeah.

DAVID: Yeah, perfect!

WULF: Yeah, but anyway, congratulations with the success of "The Green Album" and I want to know how the reception has been for this new album so far on your end?

DAVID: I guess I'll tell two sides of that story, one being that we had originally released that album independently at the end of 2009, and at the time a lot of people weren't really sure what to say about it. There were a few reviews and some of them did service (to the album) and some of them were really good and people gave it high praise and there were some that just destroyed it basically, and then I think the people who remained silent were the people who didn't really know what to think about it. So we went into that record kind of looking at it like an experiment because after doing three records we were still an independent band and we decided, well, we're only working towards our own agenda so let's just write whatever we want to write and if there's anything that can be considered an experimental Woods of Ypres album, like "Woods IV: The Green Album", was certainly it. So we had put that out and I guess for about a year and a half we weren't really sure what to think about it either because we saw that there were people who were getting into it and obviously we can see online that a lot of people got their hands on it, but from our point of view no one had bought it really.
(laughs)
So we kind of looked at it as something that was really cool that we did, but in terms of doing business, was kind of a failure, and it's interesting that a year and a half later a label takes interest, and I think that really changes the way that people look at a record like that. So our label, Earache, came on board, they saw something good in ("The Green Album") and put it out there, and then now we're seeing a couple things. A lot of press sources that maybe passed on the idea of covering the record a year and a half ago now have a new perspective on it and are publishing really good reviews, and even, believe it or not, a few interviews that I did a year and a half ago are finally being published.
(laughs)

WULF: Oh, man! That's good though, that's good!

DAVID: You gotta be patient doing this, and we certainly were, it's not like the record deal was kind of "make it or break it" for the band, I mean, the band would always exist, but it was certainly more satisfying for us now to be able to do a record like that and finally have people hear it.

WULF: Yeah, and I know that it was out awhile ago, but for my college radio station, that's how we went through (and got this interview) was through Skateboard Marketing , but it's being promoted now and you've got Earache so congratulations on that man, it's definitely good stuff.


DAVID: Thanks man. The other side of that story is that story is that there are people who are hearing us for the first time now and we're a band that's approaching our nine year birthday now, but that's cool too because I realize that those are people who are hearing us now because of Earache, who probably otherwise would have never heard of us, which is cool because they come on board with "The Green Album" and I think the same way that I discovered, for example, a band like Opeth, I mean, I think Opeth kind of blew up in North America on the "Blackwater Park" album, and (for) myself too, I knew about them from "Still Life" and I knew of "My Arms, Your Hearse", but then they got really popular and everyone looked into it and said, "wow, this band's got four other records (besides "Blackwater Park"), and that's (like) what's happening to us now. We've got three other black metal-based records and there's certainly a lot to choose from there.

WULF: Even stylistically-speaking, I can see some similarities between you guys and Opeth as well. The album (that introduced me to Opeth) was "Still Life" (thank you Tony Doria!!) that had just come out, and, of course, I was in high school, and we were all just losing our shit over Opeth and yeah, so that's cool man, hopefully some people are going through that with Woods of Ypres. Anyway, so I read in a recent interview you guys did with Xplosive Metal that you weren't even planning on making "The Green Album"? I was just curious, why is this?

DAVID: I'm trying to put that answer into context...

WULF: Sorry, I probably should have-

DAVID: I'm trying to think...there's a couple reasons why I guess I would have said that. There was a time when we were doing "Woods III: The Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues" in Toronto, and that was when we had the Toronto band and I kind of lived and worked there and everything, and I guess there was a time for sure when we were thinking we would do "Woods III", and then that would have been maybe the end of the band. I guess after doing three albums and then that record which we put 15 tracks on, I think that was one of the reasons we decided to release so many songs on that record because there was a chance that we wouldn't have done another Woods of Ypres record. It wasn't until I took a hiatus for a year and spent the year working in Seoul, South Korea, and then coming home from that the first thing I wanted to was re-re-reform the band and then do another Woods record...and yeah, that's history.

WULF: Yeah, sorry, I probably should have framed that a little better. So one of my questions later ties into you recently working in Kuwait, but I wasn't aware that you were in South Korea also.

DAVID: Yeah, just really quickly, the year that I was there I actually drummed for a kind of a famous Korean death metal band in the Seoul/South Korea scene called Necramyth, I just kind of fell into it...I think on my Youtube page there's tons of stuff from me drumming with Necramyth on there, so I kind of left (Woods of Ypres) to take kind of take a break from music and everything, and three weeks later I found myself drumming in that pretty serious band, so we were rehearsing, like, two or three times a week, playing a show every weekend, we did a CD, so my year (in Korea) became a balance between my job up there and doing this drumming gig, but it was good, man, it kept me busy.

WULF: Wow, that's cool man! I'm actually looking at (the metal-archives.com page now, are you "Veillko"?

DAVID: On there, yeah.

WULF: That's really cool, man! Were you teaching English over there?

DAVID: Yeah, I was teaching business English, pretty much the same thing.

WULF: Right...I was really interested in (teaching English) in Korea or Japan but it looks like Japan might be out of the picture for a little while...

DAVID: Yeah, a little while man, but it might be a good opportunity too.

WULF: Yeah, but Korea...I would definitely want to go to Korea. Originally that's what I was going to do but...well, we're getting a little off topic here, but-

DAVID: It's awesome. If you're considering at all, go and do it, yeah, it is awesome. A life-changing and mind-bending experience.

WULF: I'll bet!
(laughs)
But it looks like it's definitely worked out for the better, it looks like Woods of Ypres is back and it seems like maybe you guys were stronger than you were before, especially since maybe the band was gonna end, but anyway...one of the most striking aspects of "The Green Album" obviously is its departure from the black metal style of the earlier albums. You had been hinting at this on the earlier albums but never quite executed it as far as you did with "The Green Album". While I understand that bands evolve, I was curious as to how this departure came about for Woods of Ypres. I think you might have answered this earlier, or hinted at it, but did you get burned out with black metal, or did you get more into doom metal, or what's going on here?

DAVID: Well let's see, I'll have to think about that for a minute. I think that when we were writing "Woods III (The Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues)", which was still very much a black metal-based record and came out in late 2007, it was the longest process for us that had a lot of stages. We were in Toronto and that recording took a long time. I think that by the time that record came out there had been some songs that had been on our minds for about three years, and that's really a long time to hold onto something. So it's like, the record comes out in 2007, but some of that stuff I had been writing when I was like 23 or 24, and then that was kind of the end of all that black metal influence, so I think if you talk to a lot of guitar players and a lot of songwriters, there's those years where when it's time for them to finish composing songs and recording them, they always have these ideas or these riffs or these songs that have been around for years, so you're always drawing from something that you've done years ago, or a song is on the new record is inspired by something that might have happened years ago or you've had those ideas for years. We had done "Woods III", so all that black metal stuff was done, and then writing "Woods IV" I think that it was a combination of a few things where there were a few ideas, riff ideas, guitar ideas, that had been around for a few years that could never fit on a black metal Woods of Ypres record, which, when you're doing a record like that it does have some rules that you had best adhere to in terms of what to do and what not to do, for example, something like "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" or "Halves and Quarters" which are those sludge songs off of "Woods IV", we wouldn't fit those those an earlier Woods record, but then writing "Woods IV", it was meant to be a record where we not so much play within these rules, but try to tell this story, and in order to tell this story we needed four, five, six, seven different genres of metal that we put in there, and that's how it came about so we had a few ideas that didn't fit into other Woods records, but fit perfectly on "Woods IV", and then there were some other guitar ideas which were brand new, so we had a clean slate, and then we looked at, "OK, here's this song, this is what it's about, this is what this song is about, what are we going to write that's going to fit into that?" And I think that was the most challenging part about writing "Woods IV" was that it was kind of like editing a movie, you have to have continuity from one song to the next in terms of that story you're trying to tell, and from a songwriter's perspective it's much more challenging than, say, writing ten mostly disconnected songs and then putting them on the same record.


WULF: Right. Actually, what you just said kind of ties into my next question, which is...."Woods IV" is obviously a heavy album musically but also lyrically...were there any songs that were more difficult to write either technically speaking, from a musical perspective, or lyrically, from a personal perspective? Because some of the songs are sad or melancholic, while others just sound straight-up angry like "Suicide Cargoload".

DAVID: True. I mean, there's certainly a balance, and I'll admit that I think when songwriting if I'm looking at two lyrics on a page, so maybe I've got like a verse and it's got four lines, and there's one line and I'm trying to decide on, and I can either go this safe way and maybe choose something that kind of rhymes or sounds better, or I (can) choose the lyric that's more provocative and maybe kind of stands out, and almost kind of sticks out like a soar thumb sometimes. But for me, especially on "Woods IV", I've always been one to where I tend to kind of grab that lyric that's more provocative, and lyrically I don't really take the safe road. We catch a lot of criticism from people who don't like those decisions and don't like that style, but equally we hear from a lot of people who appreciate the fact that we tell it up straight like it is. At the end of the day if there's a discussion of Woods of Ypres lyrics I still laugh and I think that's it's cool that we're discussing lyrics at all, you know?
(laughs)
For a band of the metal genre...and that's just the way it is. Woods of Ypres has always been a love-it or hate-it band, and that's cool, that's the way that we do it. There is kind of a fine balance that I try to achieve among songs because we do still want things to be listenable and enjoyable for the listener, but you do want to deliver this really heavy message, and there certainly were plenty of heavy messages on that album, and for us it was like the only album we were capable of writing at the time. We chose to kind of bite the bullet on that album and purge it and get it out of our system now. I think the other alternative would have been to pretend like that album didn't exist in us, and kind of continue on our way as if "oh no, we're OK! We've recovered, everything's fine, life is good" or whatever, but instead we wanted to put out that record, and instead we wanted really to put out that record and then some parts are just like...they seem like they couldn't get anymore crushing or depressing.

WULF: Yeah, it's dark stuff man, it's really dark.

DAVID: I mean, that was the point, and we thought, if we're ever going to do a record like that, do it right, do it as heavy and as dark as you can, as dark as it really was...but for us too, I thought it was really important that the record had somewhere to go. I'll explain what I mean. There's people who listen to the record and they say, "I wish you only would have put those first seven songs on the record" for example, and those are all the doom kind of songs in the beginning of the story, and I think they want that because (those) songs kind of sound the same and then after about (track) 8 out of 16 they start to kind of work their way out of that depression, and they kind of go somewhere, and at the end at least there's that message that says "if nothing else, move on". I think if we were to try and write a record that would get you your 10 out of 10 in Terrorizer Magazine or whatever, that record I think is the record where you'd play things a little more safe and you wouldn't rock the boat so much lyrically, but you'd write that heavy, doom-y kind of record that has ten songs that more or less sound the same. For me, I felt it'd be irresponsible for us to write such a serious, true to life, heavy, emotional record, where the message of the first song is "kill yourself", and then the message of the last song is "kill yourself". It seemed so pointless to me, and I wanted to give the listener, whoever it was, some more perspective, some more hope than that. That's why around track 11 or so it starts to show a little a bit of light and then it goes somewhere, so someone listening to that CD doesn't feel beaten down and depressed by the end of it, but hopefully feels a little bit more empowered than they did when they started listening to it.

WULF: Well that seems to reflect sort of how it really goes in real life. With depression and that sort of thing, or there's some really horrible breakup or whatever. That it's like, eventually, through time, you do get the strength or what have you to burrow your way out of that hole that you've been in.

DAVID: Sure. I think for us, if teenage kids or whoever is into metal, I wasn't sure if you were (a teenager) too, I mean, I'm 30 now, but I think for a kid who might be 17 or whatever listening to any Woods of Ypres record, listening to "Woods IV: The Green Album", you know, it's not at all to say, from our perspective, that we're smarter or harder or tougher than anyone else, it's just like, we were there before you WERE, you know what I mean? And that's that, it's a little bit of insight that ourselves, going through those stages, didn't have, and maybe that's why it was as brutal as it was, and on the other side of it we realized that life does go on, despite whatever doesn't kill you, you know?

WULF: Right, right, and then you get stronger. OK, well I hate to shift gears a little bit...I've got a minor question, I looked around and I couldn't find anything, but what is that saxophone or flute-like instrument that's featured on songs like "Shards of Love" or "I Was Buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery"? Do you know what I'm talking about? It's that really beautiful (instrument).

DAVID: It is an oboe.

WULF: An oboe! OK!

DAVID: Yeah.

WULF: Because you hear it in symphonies and stuff but I wasn't (sure). Who performed that? Was that you?

DAVID: Oh, no. Her name is Angela (Shleihauf), she played with a group called Musk Ox, and they're kind of like a (inaudible), like classical instruments. Yeah, and the main guy is Nathanaƫl Larochette, a guy from Ottawa, Ontario. We knew them and the timing worked out where we were doing this record and I asked if they'd be interested in hearing a few tracks and contributing something, and sure enough they picked a few and it was really cool because they picked kind of like the beginning, the middle, and the end of the record. They come in and they added classical guitars, oboe, and then cello, and it's really cool because I imagine how that record would sound without them and even with a song like "Shards of Love", in the beginning sounded like Katatonia or something, and they stood on their own without those classical instruments, and then hearing that oboe for the first time on the first song, "Shards of Love", we kind of laughed, it sounded like something off of Titanic or something like that, but it was really cool man, it fit and added another dimension to the record and I think that it added some class to that record as well.

WULF: Yeah, it was really gorgeous. I was definitely struck by it when I first heard it on "Shards of Love", and it was cool that it was throughout the whole album. OK, so we talked about this a little bit earlier, but you recently returned from working in Kuwait. How was this experience for you? Do you feel like your experiences living there will have any impact on your songwriting in the future, or lead you to explore lyrical themes you wouldn't have considered before?


DAVID: Yeah, I (inaudible) intend to do that. A lot of my Korea experience I intentionally brought into writing "Woods IV: The Green Album", but I also didn't want to become that guy who travels and wherever he travels to he just picks stuff and that becomes a part of his band, you know? I didn't want to keep doing that and become some kind of novelty, you know? Another thing was that the whole time that I was there was pretty much consumed with just the job itself and doing a good job and keeping your head above water, but I didn't have any spare time or brainpower when I was there. I brought a guitar up there and intended to do some writing because they advised that you bring a hobby, something to keep yourself busy, just to stay sane or something, something familiar for you to do. But the whole time I was just busy learning how to live there and (was) consumed with the job. I was only there from August until the end of December, so just one semester. What happened there was we finished our plans as a band last summer, which was a fully (inaudible) North American tour, and then we went into the studio and recorded five really heavy songs, and then it was after that that we had a deal from Earache on the table, but at the time I was already scheduled to go to this job in Kuwait, and I did. I guess at the time I didn't want to NOT go to Kuwait and then (have) the deal fall through, so then (I'd be) zero for two, you know what I mean?
(laughs)
Anyway, so I went out and I guess we did our negotiating from out there which I think was an interesting move because we were discussing the deal with the label and it was really strange to them, as it was for us, that I'm out there, you know? So I'm like, "well, I'm already in Kuwait working", trying to decide if I'm going to come home or not, but then I kind of knew what I was going to do anyway but after talking to a lot of people and they asked, "well, really, what do you want to do because the opportunity is there now, you've been doing this band for almost nine years, Kuwait will always be there, any route where you want to teach will always be there, which is the truth, but I hope that we can have just a few really good, white hot years with the band in the next few years. It won't go on forever, you know what I mean? I'll be turning 31 this year. So anyway, as soon as it became easy I went into work and I waited until my probation period was done and my evaluation was done and at the time I said I had another opportunity. Too much notice up there, they like that better than the people who take their passport and their luggage and leave in the middle of the night, you know? So it was alright, it worked out OK. So I came back at Christmas and we've been working hard on Earache Woods of Ypres stuff. Ever since the first week of January.

WULF: Yeah, you guys have got a new one coming out soon, as I understand. OK, well we'll get to that in a second, but OK, before we get to that, I'm assuming that you guys are going to go on tour at some point here in the future. Is that true?

DAVID: Yeah, a couple things...we did a 14 consecutive show tour in March in eastern Ontario, eastern USA, and eastern Canada. And we're starting another tour, it starts in Philadelphia on May 5, and it goes from May 5 to June 11 or so, and that's pretty much a show almost every day for about 40 days or so.

WULF: Yeah, it sucks man, I'm in one of the least metal-friendly places. I'm in the middle of the Midwest, and we don't get too many shows around here. I'm in (the) Kansas City (area).

DAVID: We never played there, for sure.

WULF: It's so out of the way.

DAVID: I'll say, though, that it's not like it hasn't ever appeared on a few route sheets before, though, when we're trying to look at our options, I mean, it's a place that I'm sure we'll end up at eventually, you know? The Midwest does get avoided because, even for us, we do those kinds of tours and we stick to the coast.

WULF: Well, it's expensive too, to drive all that way. You don't know what the hell the turnouts gonna be like. So, I don't know. While it kind of sucks, I'm 25 and I'm ready to move on and have some adventures of my own and so I'd love to go to the coasts, (places) with more metal, Europe, shit...anywhere...but we definitely do appreciate it when bands do make it out.

DAVID: I'll tell you the way that it works, though, there's never a place that I'll turn down playing once, and even for me, even if we go on and we don't have that great of an experience, I might even say something in the moment, like, "we're never playing here again."
(laughs)
But then it will be like the next tour, and somehow that city ends up back on there, and then we show up and everyone kind of smiles at me because they know that I said we'll never come back here.
(laughs)
We're a band, we need places to go.

WULF: Similarly, with Opeth, I think it was before "Blackwater Park", somehow they ended up in Witchita, Kansas, (I think, but it could have been Kansas City, Lawrence, or somewhere else in Kansas) or something like that, and there was like fourteen people there or something, and then, of course, (several years later) when they came to Lawrence, they were like, "wow! It's good that we finally have a turnout this time!"

DAVID: This Fall will be three years that we've been touring, (inaudible), and it hasn't been until January this year that we consider this more full-time now. But yeah, over six years we're already seeing success at shows and stuff. Everybody hears things, (like) they saw Mastodon in Toronto one time and there were twenty people there, and then a year later they blew up. For us even, though, we do pretty well in most cities. We don't really have many "bomb" shows. Things are pretty good.

WULF: That's good to hear, definitely. I only have a couple more questions if that's cool with you. I know you're probably really busy. Any places that you guys are looking forward to playing in particular? Where would you say you have the strongest support for Woods of Ypres? The craziest fans?

DAVID: When I get this question, my number one is always Calgary, Alberta. This will be the fourth time we've played there in the last three years, and it's awesome, man. I don't know how it got started, but there's a really strong following and they're really supportive. There's a bunch of people out there that are really into it. We even play like a Tuesday or a Wednesday night, the end of the workweek, and we'll be the headlining band that will go on at 11:30 or later, and there's at least 100 people that will come out and wait to see us...and then it will be like, our show, and local support. Our friends, our friends' bands from Calgary, they'll play with us. I think some of my favorites from last year were San Antonio, Texas, which we never played before last summer, and then when we arrived there...I'll tell you this, there's not too many places that we really feel like we have that kind of celebrity status, even if we play some place we've never been before, some people walk up and they recognize you from the internet or whatever, and they shake your hand, and it's like, "alright, cool, lookin' forward to seein' the show!" And we showed up in San Antonio and it was like, people could not believe that we were there.
(laughs)
And it was kind of a weird experience for us, it doesn't happen very often. But it seemed like everybody in that place wanted a photo of every one of us. So there was that, (inaudible) would say Worcester, Massachusetts. We played there twice in the last year.


WULF: I'm sorry, where? Where in Massachusetts?
(I was thrown off by the correct pronunciation of "Worcester", sounds like "woo-stah")

DAVID: In Worcester, Massachusetts.

WULF: Oh, Worcester, right, right.

DAVID: I said it onstage before, like "Wor-chest-er"...the whole bar, like, SCREAMED at me.
(laughs)
And I was like, what? Wor-ster? And they were all, like, yelling "NOOOOOOO!!!!"
(laughs)
Woo-stah.

WULF: Right, right.

DAVID: We played at this place called Ralph's Rock Diner, and it's supposed to be this diner converted into a rock club. Same thing man, really intense, supportive scene up there, and all those guys have that crazy East Coast, USA accent. All those guys sound like cartoon characters.
(laughs)
To my Canadian ears they do, anyway. But that's been great, man, no disappointment shows there, for sure.

WULF: OK, good, good to hear. So besides touring, plans for the future as far as...are we going to see a Woods of Ypres DVD in the future? Or is that something you're not interested in doing? Also, I know that, according to Wikipedia at least, you guys have got a new album coming out. So what's going on in the future here?

DAVID: Yeah, a couple things. We're putting out a 7-inch called the "Home" 7-inch. It's got two songs on it, Side A - "Falling Apart", and Side B is "You Were the Light", and those were two really heavy, sludgy songs that we recorded in this August 2010 recording session, we got off of the road last year and booked some studio time and went in and I recorded those five songs because, well...I was going to Kuwait and we didn't know for how long, and we kind of feel like the songs are ready to record when they're ready, you know what I mean? It's like, if the songs are ready to go in August 2010, you're better off recording them then than to kind of like leave them and pickle for a couple years. If you come back to them they're just not the same. You will not be the same. We really think over the years that that's been the most important thing, that the record comes out when the band is still feeling that record. So many bands wait too long, and by the time the record comes out they don't even like those kinds of songs anymore.
(laughs)
Anyway, so we have the 7-inch coming out, this is direct from the band, we've got artwork by Fursy Teyssier, a black metal guy from Paris, France, who does art and music for Amesoeurs , (inaudible), and all those bands.

WULF: Yeah, I know that guy! That's incredible shit, man! OK, cool!

DAVID: Yeah, check it out online, because it's really cool, and we're doing a vinyl with this transparent deer and this ocean-blue vinyl swirl, so it's like a really cool package, with MP3 downloads and everything. That's direct from the band, we're doing pre-orders now and that comes out next month, in May. So if you go on facebook.com/woodsofypres we've got all the details there. Then we hit the road May 5 to mid-June, and right now we're scheduled to go in the studio in July to record a full-length, brand new record, and that will come out in early November on Earache Records.

WULF: Awesome, awesome.

DAVID: If you're just getting into Woods of Ypres this year, it's like..."Green Album" came out March 22, this new vinyl is coming out in May, and then there will be a whole new full-length album coming out in November, too.

WULF: So this is the fucking year, man! Right here. Awesome!

DAVID: In terms of DVDs and stuff, I got up this morning and am editing some of our tour vlogs. We're doing more kind of like, raw and uncut (video) from the road and the shows, and am putting the Toronto ones online now. So if you go to youtube.com/davidypres I've got all those there. So in terms of us doing a DVD, that's probably easier. It's probably closer to reality than you think, I think if we really wanted to do that we could get stuff together probably pretty quick.

WULF: OK, cool man! That's all the questions I have David. I just want to end with, you know, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me, I think this was a great interview. I wish you luck in the future. Any last words, anything else you'd like to say?

DAVID: Yeah man, thanks for your interest, and thanks for having me on the radio, and check out youtube.com/davidypres, and then Facebook is the easiest place to find us, so (go to) facebook.com/woodsofypres. Pick up "Woods IV: The Green Album" and take a look at our vinyl we have coming out in May, and for sure pick up the brand new record, yet untitled, but "Woods V", it will be coming out in November at the end of this year.