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)

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 Nathanaël 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.

Interview with Martin Harb of Visions of Atlantis!!

Phone interview conducted on February 11, 2011.

http://www.myspace.com/visionsofatlantisofficial



WULF: I want to say congratulations on putting out "Delta", it is a fantastic album and I really enjoyed it.

MARTIN: Thank you.

WULF: I want to know, though, how has the reception been for this new album on your end?

MARTIN: It has been already very, very good. Better than actually all previous VoA albums.

WULF: Really?

MARTIN: Yes. We are very happy about that. Magazines and professionals like it and we hope, of course, more important(ly), our fans will like it even more.

WULF: Well I'd have to agree with you because it's my favorite Visions of Atlantis album so far also, so that's good man!

MARTIN: Cool. It's good hearing that.

WULF: So this is your first album with the new vocalist, Maxi Nil. I'm curious, how did you meet her?

MARTIN: Well, we were casting a lot of girls all over Europe and we just got attached with her via Napalm Records, and we met each other and after a few minutes it was clear (that) "this is it", you know?
(laughs)
And this is actually the whole story.

WULF: Oh, well that's cool!
(laughs)

MARTIN: Five days after meeting (her) for the first time we went onstage together at Metal Camp in Europe and it was just awesome.

WULF: Wow! So it just automatically clicked, that's awesome! That's really cool man. OK, so this new album I'd say is more bombastic than ever, especially so on tracks like "Twist of Fate" and "Elegy of Existence", but, I mean, it's all over the album. I want to know...those are my personal favorite tracks on the album, is there a personal favorite track on the album for you?

MARTIN: For me, I love them all, but if I had to choose since you forced me to (laughs), my two favorites for me are "Memento" and "Conquest of Others". For me personally. It actually changes from day to day. I also love "Twist of Fate" a lot and "Elegy of Existence" but after listening so many times to it I really prefer for myself "Memento" and "Conquest of Others" because they catch my heart the most.

WULF: Ah, I see. That's cool man! Now, I understand "Delta" was produced by your bass player (Mario Lochert) and Jan Vacick-

MARTIN: Yeah, like on "Trinity" also.

WULF: OK, so what was it like working with them, and why two producers?

MARTIN: Because they have lots of experience, as Mario was integrated as a bass player and was clear with all his recording experience that he would do the job the way we want to have sounding the songs because Mario Plank, the vocalist, and me do all the songwriting and we really wanted to have a person we were in very close contact to (as a producer), and Jan Vacick also did "Trinity" and he did a hell of a job there, and he's part of the future; he's the first man for any VoA production when it comes to producing and ideas and stuff.

WULF: I see. Yeah, both those guys did a really great job too, the album sounds great. Now, I'm curious, who writes the lyrics for Visions? Is it you, or Mario, or everbody?

MARTIN: Me and Mario Plank, yes. We do almost everything.

WULF: OK, what inspires the songs lyrically? Unfortunately I couldn't get the lyrics because I only have a promo copy for my radio show.

MARTIN: Actually, Mario always invents little fictive stories with a metaphorical background of Atlantis itself, and I most of the time put metaphorical social, ideological, and psychological stuff into my songs always with a kind of (metaphor). It is also the main stuff on "Delta" with red light (??), although it is actually no concept album.

WULF: OK, yeah I was curious, would you like to talk about the new album title "Delta"? It could mean a number of things...

MARTIN: You can guess. It's the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, and of course when you see the cover, the delta is the situation where the small river is coming into the great sea and springing out something huge and something even bigger. You know, this was the ascension, and (what) we want to do on every album (is have) the number of the album somehow fit into the title.

WULF: Right, like "Trinity", and then "Delta", OK...that's awesome. I was looking and you've got that great, pyramid-like thing on the cover too which is like the triangle delta. That's really cool. So as far as I know you have one music video, are there any plans to make a new music video for a song off of "Delta"?

MARTIN: Yes, it's already produced and it will be released worldwide in a few days. So stay tuned for that, it will be awesome. It's from the track "New Dawn".

WULF: OK, so I only have a couple more questions if that's OK, I know you're busy. I see that you're about to go on tour in Europe, is there a chance of you coming over here to North America?

MARTIN: Yeah, we are trying everything to make this possible again and we hope to come in 2011 already. It would be a dream coming true again so cross your fingers and hope that everything is working out. But nothing is fixed, and nothing I'm allowed to talk about already.
(laughs)

WULF: OK, I understand man. OK, so my last question then...is there any chance of you guys putting out a DVD in the near future?

MARTIN: We're thinking about this and been asked that lots of times, but at the moment I think we should do releasing an album from year to year and (not) changing the lineup again, and then we can talk about this.
(laughs)

WULF: Ah, OK awesome man. Well I know you're busy so thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

MARTIN: It was a great pleasure to talk to you, maybe (we'll) have a chance meeting each other perhaps when (we) head over to the States, and I hope everything is cool with the radio and I hope you're having a great day.

WULF: OK, thanks man, you too! Good luck tonight.

MARTIN: OK, it will be an awesome show. I think it's almost sold out again!

Interview with David Sanchez of Havok!!

Phone interview conducted on January 28, 2011.
http://www.myspace.com/havok

WULF: Alright, I'd like to start off by saying thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me. Congratulations on this upcoming album.

DAVID: Thanks for having me on.

WULF: OK, so I want to start off by saying I've actually known about you guys since the "Pwn 'Em All" days.

DAVID: Oh man!
(laughs)

WULF: So I'm from Lawrence (Kansas) but there's this band that moved here from Colorado (Elctrikchair) and for my radio show they gave me that EP, and were like, "Oh, here's some Colorado metal!" And I was really impressed with it!

DAVID: Right on.

WULF: So it's cool that you guys have come such a long way. But anyway, OK so my first question for you, just sort of a warm-up starter question...is there any chance that the name Havok comes from the X-Men (character) or is just Havoc (with a K) as in like, destruction and mayhem and that sort of thing?

DAVID: It's havoc as in destruction and mayhem, and realistically, the only reason that's our name is because the logo looks cool.
(laughs)

WULF: Yeah, the logo does look cool! Congratulations on that because a lot of times logos look generic and that sort of thing. I was just kind of curious, I'm an old-school X-Men fan. Just wondering.

DAVID: Yeah, no worries.

WULF: So, I want to know...this (new) album "Time Is Up" isn't out yet, but I want to hear from you what's the early reception for this album been like so far?

DAVID: Every review we've been seeing so far has been really, really good. The worst score its gotten so far is a 4 out of 5. So that's not bad.

WULF: That's good!
(laughs)

DAVID: The only bad thing that anyone has ever said about it is "ohhhh...it's thrash metal". Like, they're so narcissistic about it just because it's fast, old-school, riff-heavy heavy metal. And for some reason some people are bent out of shape about the whole thing, even though they love Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth, they hate any band that sounds kind of like a new band.

WULF: Right. I would imagine it's probably the sort-of, like, internet forum brigade. That type of thing.

DAVID: Yeah, totally.

WULF: They only like the demo, yeah. No, I just want to say that I was really impressed...I mean, I liked "Burn" a lot but I think "Time Is Up" is definitely an improvement. I feel like it's more aggressive, and the drums (especially) sound absolutely incredible.

DAVID: Thanks.

WULF: I feel like in a way it's sort of angrier, or a more intense album.

DAVID: Yeah, it's definitely more aggressive I think.

WULF: Yeah, for sure, and so I want to know if this is through personal improvements as far as your proficiency with instruments or were you guys going through some tough shit, or what was happening when this album was being made?

DAVID: We went through a few lineup changes between the "Burn" album and this album. But as far as the aggressiveness, it doesn't have anything to do with lineup changes or personal changes..."Burn" came out and it had songs on it from when I was 15 years old, and it also had some newer songs on it. There's some songs on "Burn" that I think are a very good foreshadowing of what is on "Time Is Up". I think the best tracks on "Burn" kind of give you a hint as to where we were going, and with this album it's all new, all fresh stuff, and I think it's just a natural progression and improvement of our sound, just from getting more acclimated with our songwriting and the technicalities of music and the flow and all that type of thing. We're only getting better, we're not gonna put out a shittier album.
(laughs)
At least not on purpose.

WULF: Right, right. So lyrically (speaking), unfortunately with the promo copy that I got which is digital through Earsplit PR, I didn't have access to lyrics. So I was kind of curious, for "Time Is Up", why this title? I mean, do you mean "time is up" as in the end of the world, like 2012, or is it like the end of America, or "time is up" as in Havok's gonna like, destroy everybody in the scene now?

DAVID: It...it means all of those things!
(laughs)
No, but realistically the song "Time Is Up" is basically written as if you're on your deathbed and you're about to be judged in your afterlife, and there's a line in the song that says "plead your case, appeal to me, I'll be judge and jury", and that's exactly what's on the album cover. The whole entire jury in the background is dead, and there's one person slamming down the gavel. Basically, the title "Time Is Up" is directly reflected in the album cover. But the phrase "Time Is Up" is the title of the album basically because it applies to every song. Lyrically speaking, the phrase "time is up" can apply to any of the songs.

WULF: Right.

DAVID: It's not a concept album but it's a general term that definitely is applicable.

WULF: It's a common theme that brings the album.

DAVID: Sure.

WULF: And what sucks is that without having a physical copy, I saw the album cover but it was kind of small and so forgive me for missing that, that's really cool that it ties all together.

DAVID: Oh yeah, no worries.

WULF: I want to know as far as during recording, was there a particular track that was more difficult than the others to nail down?

DAVID: I mean, there's some parts on the albums that are definitely technically demanding on the instruments. There were parts that we had to redo a few times but we're all pretty technically proficient, so it wasn't a huge pain the ass to record, you know? I think all the drums were recorded over the course of three days, maybe four days? And then edited together and polished a little bit. Guitars, I got all the rhythm tracks for the left speaker all done in one day, and then I got the right speaker done the next day. The next day I laid down all my solos. So everything came together really fast. Bass only took two days. Solos took two or three days. If anything, the vocals took longer because the throat needs more time to heal, to get it back into recording shape. With guitar, I could play guitar for six hours and it wouldn't be a big deal, but I can't yell into a microphone for six hours.
(laughs)

WULF: So you're a guitar player first and then sort of as a vocalist (you're) trying to get up to that level as well?

DAVID: Yeah, if anything I'd say I'm a better songwriter than I am a guitar player or singer. I'm good at arranging parts. I'm not the most badass guitar player ever and I'm certainly not the most badass singer ever, but not to say I suck at them, but I think I excel in arrangement.

WULF: Alright. So I was looking at (Havok's) Myspace and the first thing that you guys have up there, sort of a mash-up of all your footage, looked really cool. But I was curious, is there any chance of a music video for a song off of "Time Is Up"?

DAVID: Yeah, we're probably gonna shoot a few. There will definitely be music videos for this album. We just need to figure out when and where we're going to start shooting.

WULF: So you think around Colorado, that sort of thing?

DAVID: Most likely, but we tour enough to where if we wanted to shoot it in California or Texas we could totally do that, we just have to plan for it.

WULF: Right. OK, well that kind of brings me to my next question. You guys are about to go on tour here, but I must say it's kind of a weird lineup. I do like the variety though, it's cool that it's not all bands that sound the same. So of all the different styles, which do you feel that Havok most closely relates to stylistically from those bands.

DAVID: On this upcoming tour?

WULF: Right.

DAVID: Well, the tour's with Malevolent Creation, Full Blown Chaos, The Absence, us, and Beyond Terror Beyond Grace from Australia. Stylistically speaking, I would have to say we're...we're not really like any of the bands, but if I had to pick who we're closest to I'd say The Absence. A lot of guitar riffs and the drums lock in with the guitars really tight, and I don't know...but that's a hard question to answer because we realistically I don't think we sound like any of them.

WULF: Yeah, right. If I was going to guess, I would have said, at least stylistically, I was thinking Malevolent Creation just because of the old-school death metal thing.

DAVID: Yeah, and I could see that too.

WULF: But obviously, Havok is a lot different from those bands, and those bands are a lot different from each other. OK, so for this upcoming tour and everything you guys are going to be going all over, is there a particular city that you guys look forward to more than the others, that's maybe notorious for having your craziest shows or your craziest fans?

DAVID: St. Louis is always pretty nuts. We played two shows there where literally the house that we played in got destroyed.

WULF: The house got destroyed?!

DAVID: Oh yeah, we played a few house shows in St. Louis and I specifically remember one show where we're playing in someone's basement and the crowd was punching out the tile of the ceiling, and at the end of the night there was dust and ceiling all over the ground. There was no more ceiling in that basement, and somebody thought it was a good idea to jump up and grab onto the AC and heater distributing ventilation system and ripped that thing off of the ceiling as well. Then somebody poured a bunch of kitty litter in the toilet, and the toilet had to get taken out of the house.
(laughs)
But every single time we play in St. Louis something happens.

WULF: Wow! That's funny because for one, looking at how you guys are coming up (to Kansas City), I'm (outside) of Kansas City, and Kansas City is right after St. Louis, so hopefully we can measure up to that. I mean, I don't know if you want to go THAT crazy but--

DAVID: I was about to mention Kansas City also though. Every single time we play there it's almost like a hometown show because we hit KC so often because it's the next city over to the east (from Denver) and we always hit it on the way to a tour from the east or on the way home from a tour from the east. So we come to Kansas City a lot, and every single time we come there it's awesome.

WULF: OK, well that's good to hear! Unfortunately I missed you guys in the past, but this time I will definitely be there this time. I'm really excited to see you guys, especially after looking at the live footage in your videos, it looks like it's gonna be a blast.

DAVID: Yeah, thanks a lot man, it always is. I think we're one of those bands that's cooler to see live than to listen to on CD.
(laughs)

WULF: Well, I think there's advantages and disadvantages but no I can definitely see what you're saying, for sure. So I know we're running low on time here, is there any chance you could answer one last question?

DAVID: Yeah, of course.

WULF: OK, my last question, and this is just kind of a question I like to ask, just out of curiosity...of all the bands that you've played with so far, I want to know who would you say is the craziest, the most nuts band that you've ever had an experience with? Besides yourselves of course!
(laughs)

DAVID: That puts on a crazy show?

WULF: Anything! Onstage, offstage, just...nuts dudes.

DAVID: Totally insane dudes...I'm gonna have to say the dudes in Witchaven are pretty fucking crazy.
(laughs)

WULF: Really? Witchaven?

DAVID: Yeah, the dudes in Witchaven are pretty nuts, but we've got a lot of friends in a lot of bands, and we're lucky to know the people that we do because we're bros with a lot of really awesome bands. But the Witchaven dudes come to mind right away for pretty crazy things.
(laughs)

WULF: OK, OK, well the only reason I ask is because one time I asked that to...I think I was talking to the band Warbringer, and the first thing they said was Belphegor...especially with black metal bands, they were like "those dudes are for real"...just...crazy, you know?
(laughs)
Like offstage they're really fucking weird and so...nah, but I was kind of curious. Witchaven, alright! Actually, I've never listened to them, I've heard the name before so I'm definitely going to the check them out.

DAVID: Yeah, definitely check that band out. They're badass.

WULF: Alright man, well speaking of badass bands, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

DAVID: Of course man.

WULF: I really, really like this album, I'm really excited to see you guys coming up here, so yeah man. I just want to say good luck on tour, and do you have any last words you'd like to say about anything?

DAVID: Pick up the album when it comes out on March 29, it will be well-received by anybody who likes guitar riffs, cool drums, and cool bass. Anybody that plays in a rock band will probably dig it. If not for anything else, just the musicality alone.

WULF: I would 100% agree.

DAVID: It doesn't suck, so...
(laughs)

WULF: It's definitely very, very...it's the opposite of suck.

DAVID: It's blow.
(laughs)
This album totally blows.

Interview with Paul Delaney of Black Anvil!!

Phone interview conducted on October 16, 2010.
http://www.myspace.com/blackanvilny

This was a challenging interview. Paul's New York accent was pretty thick and he spoke kind of quietly so I had trouble understanding him. Unfortunately, I waited quite some time to transcribe this interview, so at this point it would be kind of obnoxious to try and contact Paul to try and clarify some of his answers. At any rate, here's what I could make out:

WULF: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me on here. I'm really, really digging your new album, "Triumvirate". People around here are really digging it as well, which is cool too. Anyway, I'd just like to start off by asking you how the reception is on your end so far?

PAUL: So far, so good. I've looked at a couple bad reviews here and there, but yeah so far the reviews have been pretty good. The only downside is that a lot of the...well, I guess for reviews (there's been) a digital package (with mp3s) and the only downside of that is that our lyrics are our strong point in this band, but it seems here and there (there's been) a picky, bad review, or you know, an honest review of someone that doesn't care for us too much, but a bit more of the (most negative) reviews that take digs at us and our background don't really focus on what the band is than what they're hearing on the outside. I guess that's a (this) day and age thing, I suppose.

WULF: Yeah, I was reading in Decibel at how you guys were talking about that, about how some people were sort of dwelling on the past as far as you guys used to play in Kill Your Idols which was more like hardcore and people were focusing on that as opposed to focusing on like, the music of Black Anvil.

PAUL: Yeah, that's probably just a creative copout, a starting ground for conversation. I understand with a newer band, history helps. There's a lot more (focus) on that than the actual product that's being reviewed. There's a couple specific reviewers in mind (that didn't like it), that (were like), "this is nothing more than metal riffs and this and that" and...it's a little more than that. It's a little complex. It's not a Rush record by any means but there sure is some complexity to us, there's more than meets the eye. It may take the listener to sit down and read the lyrics and think a little more to understand but I wish there was a little more emphasis on that aspect. The exception to (those negatie reviews), is so far so good.

WULF: Yeah, that's one of the downsides, since I do a radio show, is that most of the labels now do digital promo copies as opposed to sending us a hard copy, and so unfortunately since I don't have a hard copy I was looking online for lyrics and I couldn't find any, but it wasn't totally exhaustive just because I could already tell what you guys were saying from listening to the album, which was good too. It wasn't just so...a lot of times with metal it's hard to make out the lyrics, but with you guys I felt it was easy to make out, which was good too for coming up with these questions. But before I get to that, I have a question...for this album, did you have a personal favorite track? I like the whole album, but I'd say the standout track for me personally was "Angels to Dust". I don't know why it stood out more than the others, maybe because it's fast but also I really like the melodic part in the middle and then it gets really doomy. So that just really got me. What about you?

PAUL: I think that was one of the "hookier" songs. That's up there for me, but overall I'd say I couldn't choose one. The flow of the record from beginning to end was strategically put together and I feel really accomplished creating the record, so it would be hard for me to just choose one. I'm a fan of the overall product.

WULF: What about recording-wise, was there a track that was more difficult to record than any of the others, that maybe you guys had more of a difficult time trying to nail in the studio?

PAUL: No, we (inaudible) tracking-wise, for the most part.

WULF: Alright. Now, I'm not going to focus on this, this is just one question, but I understand you probably get asked this a lot, but you guys used to play in Kill Your Idols and it was more hardcore, and now you're playing black metal, and I'm just curious as to what facilitated this sort of switch? Were you guys always into black metal, even in the hardcore days?

PAUL: I've been into metal overall since before I even played hardcore. I really dove into black metal I'd say mid to late 90s was when I really like...dove deeper than the obvious choices. The Bathory and Mayhem records. I realized there was more. At that point I definitely looked deeper and found a lot more. (inaudible)
But these days I still find stuff and research because of my love for music and aggressive music, but hardcore in New York is different than (the stereotype), straight-edge kids and (inaudible), it was a pretty tough scene and that's what drew us all to bands like Agnostic Front, Terror, Sick of It All, and Kill Your Idols was a product of that upbringing.
(inaudible)
Lyrically it's different than this but we had a different vocalist, so that was his contribution. There wasn't much of a (inaudible) for me other than...it was a pretty natural stepping stone. Kill Your Idols broke up and in time after that Gary and I were doing a band called Deathcycle which was a project he started, which was heavier punk. It was tuned a lot lower, and after we put out a couple records it was tuned lower and lower and experimenting with heavy tuning, there's a lot you can do. But for us I feel like there's a wider range or variety with low-tuning. It kept getting heavier and heavier. It just sort of stuck. It was something that we had discussed for years, but being that (playing in a band takes up so much time), there's never enough time for a side-project. A few years later, with (Deathcycle) no longer in existence, (inaudible)

WULF: Well, and so, I'm kind of curious, do you feel like Black Anvil is a part of this new emergence of the U.S. black metal scene? I know that USBM has been around for a long time, but there's this sort of new emergence of this new sound and it's a little more experimental like Wolves in the Throne Room or Nachtmystium, and I was wondering if you felt that Black Anvil was a part of this scene or are you guys something different?

PAUL: Not at all. I don't feel like we're a part of it at all. We've toured with Nachtmystium, Blake is a good friend of ours. I compare myself to them more than anyone else, but I don't feel like we fit in with the average scene. And it could be just me, but I feel like we're on a different page and our music (and lyrics) are rooted from a different place. I just think we stand alone. Not on a pedestal, not above anyone, but I do feel like we sort of have our own thing. Seeing the upbringing in this band in the last couple of years...I feel like we are a completely individual unit...functioning--
(laughs)
When it comes to different scenes and who's who and what's what.

WULF: Well, another thing I'm not too familiar with because I live in the Midwest is...what is the black metal scene like in New York? I mean, I know that New York death metal is really big, and of course hardcore and punk, but what about black metal though?

PAUL: There's no scene to me. My scene is in my fucking iPod.
(laughs)
You know? That's where my scene is. But there is a scene, I mean, bands come and play. Triptykon and 1349 played in New York a couple days ago. I was out of town, however, I'm assuming the show was decently attended. I've played shows with different bands, I've gone to shows, there's a scene. There's definitely a metal scene. I don't know how much of an underground there is though, because I am personally not a part of it. There's definitely a cool, hip aspect to it these days which I have no affiliation with whatsoever. Those people mean nothing to me. But it even seems like that has sort of come and gone. It's not completely "in" to go see this band or that band. It's over when people find something new. But there's a pretty big metal scene, you know? It's hard to nail down, but it's there. In the big picture, it's there.

WULF: OK. I've been to New York once, but it was a long time ago, and certainly not when I was listening to metal, and so that was just something I was kind of curious about. OK, so more about the album, for "Triumvirate", the album cover, I feel, is really badass. It definitely captures the music perfectly, I feel. I was wondering, who is the art by? And how did you pick out this particular artist?

PAUL: He also did the artwork for our first record. He does some notable (inaudible) as well, and I've just been a fan of his artwork for some time and I contacted him while we were writing the first record. Pretty great artist.
His company is Metastazis.
But he's done some work for Antaeus, Ulver, Nachtmystium...I've got a good amount of respect for him, and Averse Sefira--

WULF: Yeah, I know Averse Sefira.

PAUL: Yeah, he's done phenomenal artwork for them. I constantly go to his site and look at his artwork, and I finally looked him up and asked if there's any interest, and he wrote back. He had a brief six or eight months that (he was spending) living in New York and I got to know him well. And (the artwork) for this record just came out phenomenal. The LP especially, I don't know how he'll top this.
(laughs)
He's definitely a genius and the ball was all in his court. I gave him the music, gave him the lyrics, and he heard it from demo stages until the finished stages, and we said "hey man, let's see your job". He really created something powerful.

WULF: Yeah, I think it's really cool. It definitely grabs you. But anyway, I was looking on your Myspace page and I noticed that you have an upcoming tour with Goatwhore and Watain. Those dudes definitely have a reputation for being pretty nuts on and offstage, or at least Watain does. Goatwhore, they seem offstage that they're kind of nice dudes, I don't know about Watain. I was wondering, in all your years of playing in bands and stuff, who is the craziest band that you've ever toured with?

PAUL: The craziest band I've ever toured with...I wouldn't call them crazy, per se, like in a wild way, but I've actually played in Madball, I filled in for their bass player for a good handful of tours. I lent a hand to them. But by far, they're a band that's not to be fucked with.

WULF: Yeah, I'll bet!

PAUL: They're some of the best people I know, but you know, all "crazy" goes out the window when you're rolling with a band like them who you don't want to see that crazy side.

WULF: Yeah, East Coast hardcore shit isn't really to be fucked with, so--

PAUL: But yeah, crazy? I've seen all sorts of crazy but reality is what's most (inaudible), but with a band like Madball...I'd put my money on them any day. And no disrespect to anyone else, but...you know.

WULF: Right. No, I got ya. So with touring, what is your favorite place as far as cities, where would you say is your favorite place to play live? Where did you experience the best Black Anvil fans?

PAUL: I would say New York. With this band we haven't made many rounds, we did some sporadic dates for the Marduk tour, we did the West Coast and East Coast with them. Canada's actually awesome, Montreal is a really great city. But for now I'd say Philly, New York, Montreal...like, East Coast. Virginia...Richmond has a great scene.

WULF: Yeah, I've heard Montreal mentioned a lot. I don't remember who I was talking to but they mentioned it as the "Metal Capital of the New World" or something like that. I've never been there but I've heard the metal scene is really good.

PAUL: Yeah, it's a pretty strong one.

WULF: I'm just kind of jealous because being in the Kansas City area, we have good shows but it's nothing compared to the East or the West Coasts, do you know what I mean? Or Montreal for that matter.

PAUL: I was told this tour was supposed to hit Kansas City before the cancellation of Behemoth.

WULF: I know! We were really, really excited, and then unfortunately there was the news of Nergal and so it looks like they're not going to be coming around here...well I guess the whole tour...

PAUL: Yeah, there's been a lot of re-booking involved. So we're hoping that we're on it, but yeah it's been a lot of work to line that shit back up. We were looking forward to it.

WULF: Yeah, that was going to be really awesome, seeing all of you guys. OK, so my last question is, because I know we're running out of time here, but there's a lot of really good Youtube footage of you guys playing live, and I was wondering about your plans for the future. Obviously you guys are going to be going out on tour and recording new music, I'm assuming, eventually. But what about, given all this footage, are you guys ever going to release a DVD or anything like that?

PAUL: Definitely not in the near future. In the near future there are definitely no plans for a DVD release, but maybe down the line it would be something that's cool. If we have enough stuff to be released.

WULF: Some of the stuff I've seen online, at least on Youtube, looks really good. I think it'd be cool since I haven't seen you guys live to see you guys on a DVD.

PAUL: There's some really good footage of me on Scion Rock Fest. I don't know if it's actually released. I wouldn't call it "pro-shot" but it's pretty damn good sound quality and video quality from scion rock fest. I want to see all the bands from our venue. It should have two or three clips up of Absu, us, I forget who else...Liturgy maybe? But there's definitely some good footage from that show floating out there.

WULF: I'll definitely check it out! A lot of bands don't come to our area, so sometimes in order to see bands live I have to resort to the internet. Which is cool, but it's not a true substitute for the real thing. Anyway man, I know we're out of time so I just want to end by saying thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. Good luck on your tour, and hopefully we'll be seeing you guys in the Midwest here in the Kansas City area sometime in the future.

PAUL: Yeah, hopefully we'll see you man.

Interview with Bob Macabre of Chainsaw Dissection / Psychotic Homocidal Dismemeberment / Satanic Impalement!!

E-mail interview conducted between March 31-April 2, 2010.

WULF: Tell us a bit about yourself…who you are, any info about your bands, the scene in your hometown, etc.

BOB: My name is Bob Macabre. I started back in 1993 with my guitar teacher at that time who did the drum programming. I also worked on some things myself at that time and continued to develop my sound. Some things I didn't have a name for but kept recording. These items eventually became part of my Chainsaw Dissection project. My different styles became parts of my different projects: Goatbleeder, Dog Mulch (early project), PHD, etc. My main projects at the moment are PHD and Chainsaw Dissection. The scene around here SUCKS! This is true even living about 40 miles outside of Pittsburgh. No one really plays around here and to see anyone I would have to go to either Ohio or Philly. If I'm lucky, sometimes they'll play small bars around Pittsburgh, but don't usually find out till the day before or after they have played.

WULF: You have recorded a ridiculous amount of music in the past 7 years or so…how do you find the time to do all this stuff!? You recorded EIGHT full-length albums in 2010 alone, not to mention demos, eps, splits and what-have-you. What fuels your inspiration to record so much stuff? I know that you’re a big horror movie fan judging by your promo pics, but what else is going on here?

BOB: Most of the stuff written isn't 100% true. A lot of the songs were recorded years back, but YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook were not around back when I did them. So my songs have grown over the years, and really only friends that were into this music were the ones that heard them. Basically, a lot of the CDs that came out in one year were like a "re-release" because they were recorded back then but just never out there. I kind of did a release every other month and that's why it seems like there was a lot out there at once. Honestly most of this was done over a 10 year period, but technology wasn't there to help me get it out there when these were originally recorded. I took advantage as soon as it became widely available. My inspiration comes from just about anything. I really enjoy recording music like people enjoy reading or playing video games. Sometimes I can hear or see something, and I get an idea. The ideas can just come from anywhere. I do get ideas from horror movies and am I big fan of movies from the 70s and 80s. Just kind of go with the flow when I idea comes to mind. Sometimes the ideas are good and other times not so good. I've recorded full length CDs and have hated the end project and they have ended up in the trash.

WULF: Clearly, you’re into death metal, goregrind, and black metal. How long have you been into this kind of music?

BOB: I've been listening to death metal since I was like 10 years old. I started listening to Possessed, Death, and Napalm Death, but I also like bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Slayer. Black Metal for me was like the mid-90s with Emperor and Mayhem. Goregrind was about the same time in the 90s.

WULF: According to metal-archives.com, you have SEVENTEEN projects you’ve
recorded music for…which of these would you say is your “primary” band, or do you have one?

Pretty much Chainsaw Dissection and PHD are my main projects followed by Satanic Impalement. Others were just experimental projects to see what I could do that didn't fit into my main projects. With those I wanted to try some different guitart tones, drum patterns, and vocals but didn't want them associated with my main 3.

WULF: If you had to critique your own music, which would you say are the
strongest of your bands? Are there any albums you had any difficulty recording, or specific songs you found particularly challenging to compose
and/or record? How long does it take you to compose, say, a full-length album?

BOB: My strongest are Chainsaw Dissection and Psychotic Homocidal Dismemeberment (PHD). Since I've been recording for so long, I can't recall off hand what was more difficult. I feel every album presents a challenge in of itself. Just trying to find different tones or sounds so I'm not producing the same thing ever album. Even if it's just a little different. For recording a whole album, I've done one in as little as a week and it has taken me as long as a month and a half. It just really depends on how the creative process is working for me at the time. Some times it's just easier than others. My mulitiple CDs have taken longer, like my Chainsaw Dissetion 8 CD set took me about a year to pull it together.

WULF: All of your bands are composed of only you as the sole member. Have you ever attempted to incorporate other musicians into your
bands, or do you prefer the “one-man band” approach?

BOB: I prefer the one man band approach because I can do what I want when I want to. I don't have to worry about relying on others to be here or not show at all. But, I am working on a Black Metal project called "Perception of Hades" with Mike Scrivens from Malignant Decay. And we're also doing a Death Metal project called "Ghoul Necropsy."

WULF: Have you ever performed live? If you haven’t, is this something
you envision happening in the future?

BOB: I have never performed live, but if the opportunity came about, I would do it. I have no idea where I would play around here. Maybe I'll have to go to New York sometime and Mike and I can perform together!

WULF: Are you a self-taught musician? Would you care to tell us about
your equipment, recording gear, etc.?

BOB: No, I took guitar lessons when I was younger who helped me with my early stuff. I use a Crate amp, Marshall Half-stack, BC Rich guitars along with some others, variety of distortion pedals, 16 track recorder and burner. Plus my basses and drumm machine.

WULF: What gets you in the mood to record all this sick shit?! Is it a real serious process for you, or is it more laid-back with maybe some beer or a joint?

BOB: I take it seriously but don't take it overly seriously. I like to be professional about it. I enjoy recording but don't angry if something's not working out right. I go back till I get it the way I like or just take a break and go back to it later. Yeah maybe beer sometimes or a little Jack 'n Coke to get the ideas flowing.

WULF: Plans for the future…any new music and/or any new projets? If so, are you going to experiment with any new styles of metal, like
thrash or doom? What about experimenting with new genres outside of metal, like ambient, punk, or electronic?

BOB: The new stuff with Mike mainly. These are the main two I'm concentrating on at the moment as well as maybe a new PHD CD or maybe even a brand new project. Just depends on where the ideas take me right now. I have done a thrash project called Brutish Creation and a doom project called Funeration. I like punk but don't think I'll really ever do anything with that. I like the Mifits and Ramones, but not something I would record. Ambient stuff is fine but also not something I would record. I don't like electronic stuff.

WULF: Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions, man. Any last words?

BOB: Thanks for the interview and here's my links for more information about my projects:

Check out most of my stuff on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/macabremastermind

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1495041103

MySpace: www.myspace.com/chainsawdissection

Email: chainsawdissection@yahoo.com