Album Review: "Becoming" - Abigail Williams

I don't know what the deal is with me wanting to defend shit that no one likes. I already white-knighted Liturgy in an earlier post on here, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I really like Celtic Frost's notoriously shitty "Cold Lake" ("Seduce Me Tonight" fucking rules) and brain-dead guttural slam (Cephalotripsy, Devourment, Cemetery Rapist)- shit that makes internet metal nerds freak the fuck out. Maybe I feel bad for the artists for some reason? I don't know. Obviously there's shit that's terrible that I'll 100% agree is lousy (such as the latest Morbid Angel album, Cryptopsy's "The Unspoken King", "St. Anger", etc.), but I feel like there are times when you can tell an artist or band is super into their shit and really, REALLY want people to like it. This kind of desperation is a turn-off for most people, but at the end of the day for me it has the opposite effect. I guess I'm one of those "it's not THAT bad" kind of people, but whatever.

My point is that Abigail Williams is one of those artists that I feel gets a lot of hate for superficial reasons. I should probably preface this argument by saying that I haven't really done my homework on this, I haven't read too many interviews with these guys and don't know too much about them, so this might just be a stupid argument to make. Anyway, here's what I know about them:
1. They started out as a shitty blackened deathcore or whatever group (I haven't listened to their early shit, so I'm going off of metal-archives).
2. They tried to establish themselves as more legit by putting out "In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns", a more "symphonic black metal" effort which featured Trym drumming on some tracks.
3. Still not being taken very seriously and compared to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, they decided to strip down their sound with a less-overblown, more "evil" atmosphere with their second album, "In the Absence of the Light". Still received mediocre reviews. At this point they've already gone through a shitload of lineup changes as well, and have been getting booed at live shows.
4. Recently put out "Becoming", which is one of the best albums that I've heard so far this year.

Wait, what?!

Seriously! I don't know if these guys started doing heavy-duty hallucinogens and/or just started listening to a lot of Wolves in the Throne Room or Altar of Plagues, but something's up. Whether or not these guys are totally ripping off this whole "post-black metal" trend or not is besides the point-- "Becoming" is an excellent album, and even though they've clearly jumped on a bandwagon, it's original enough to appreciate in its own way.

While there's plenty of "atmospheric" touches to Abigail Williams' new sound, conspicuously absent are the band's old trademarks of symphonic flourishes and polished production. Instead, while there are plenty of gorgeous melodies and beautiful string arrangements, the album has a gritty production quality to it that goes perfectly with its "dark" BM riffs and ominous ambient moments (listen to the beginning of "Beyond the Veil"!) and well-placed psychedelic moments.

I seriously would have never guessed this is Abigail Williams. I've listened to their two previous albums, and wasn't very impressed. I've read reviews of their live shows, and the general consensus I came across was that they were boring. My buddy told me that at the show he was at they got heckled by the audience. After putting out this album, I can't imagine these guys still sucking live since it's obvious that "Becoming" has the two essential ingredients for greatness the band has been lacking this entire time-- passion and inspiration. By listening to everything from Ken Sorceron's howling screams and growls (someone else mentioned Xasthur or Leviathan, I can see that) to the energy pulsing from the drums, it's obvious that these guys were FEELING this album. I have no idea what the lyrics are about on this album (I've noticed there's a significant lack of contemporary interviews), but clearly they're not phoning this shit in.

The musicians' performances are also all top-notch, and while nothing specifically stands out as amazing, it works to the music's advantage by maintaining the listener's focus on the music as a whole. I mentioned Altar of Plagues before, but that's who comes to mind most when describing Abigail William's musicianship. Personally, I didn't find "Mammal" to be a work of musical virtuosos, but they obviously don't suck either (the same could be said for Wolves in the Throne Room too). Saying they "get the job done" implies that they're kind of shitty at what they do, but that's not what I mean. When listening to "Becoming", you're not distracted by any musician in particular, just the "vibe" of the song. Eh, you know what I mean.

While I can see a lot of metal fans putting these guys down and not giving this album a chance (understandable, to a certain extent,) I'd say that by writing these guys off you're missing out. Obviously, I was blown away by "Becoming", and I hope by checking this album out you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I am. I can't believe I'm praising this album as much as I am, but as much shit as these guys have been through by internet metal nerds like myself, they definitely deserve it.

RIYL: Nachtmystium's newer stuff, Wolves in the Throne Room, Altar of Plagues, Deafheaven, Agalloch

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 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.