Interview with Elctrikchair!!

Interview conducted outside Duffy's in Lawrence, KS, on May 14, 2010.


http://www.myspace.com/elctrikchair

WULF: So! You guys have just put out "Xenophobia". New album. What I'd like to say is congratulations on doing all that, and while I follow a basic outline to my interviews because I'm pretty inexperienced, you can feel free to deviate (from my questions), do whatever you want. So, what I'd like to say is-- basic starter question, how has the reception been so far on your end for this album?

BOBBY: Fantastic. It's been selling out of FYE, sold out of Relapse.com, sold out of Tower Records, sold out of Angelo's in Denver, Colorado, selling out of Best Buy, selling out of Amazon, it's been good. Really good reaction.

ANDY: And especially where we're living, every single store sold out of (it), and each store had twenty copies each.

BOBBY: Hastings sold out in the first week.

ANDY: So the album is surprisingly doing a lot better than I expected, honestly. Without any promotion or help. We're finally getting promotion on the new record, we're going to be in the next issue of Hails and Horns, coming out June 23. Maris the Great did a review, and he also...killed us (laughs)

KENNETH: Basically we got covered in a bunch of meat and stage blood and it was a fun experience. (laughs)

WULF: I saw that! That's awesome.

BOBBY: He made me lay in the snow, that kind of sucked. (laughs) "Lay in the snow while I kick dust on you!" "This better be worth it, Maris!" (laughs) But he made me the cover boy so I can't bitch.

WULF: That's awesome. I did read that interview, it was very entertaining. So, for this new album, I would like to ask, while I enjoyed (all) of the tracks, I really liked (the obvious highlights) which I would say are "Xenophobia" and "Celebrity Media Whore"... you guys can answer this each individually or whatever, but what would you say would be your (personal) favorite tracks for the album?

BOBBY: Of course you point at me first. (laughs) Strangely enough my favorite to listen to is "Dark Crystal". And the reason why is that even though we do that weird, odd hardcore breakdown at the end, the way we did it was so Mr. Bungle-y I loved it. (laughs) I just loved it.

KENNETH: I'd say my favorite is "Celebrity Media Whore". It's very catchy, it's got a good groove to it, I just love it.

ANDY: (For me) it's kind of a cross between several different songs. I would have to say my favorite is, out of all of them, "Blackened War", the oldest out of that whole bunch. We've actually had "Blackened War" since the "Citicorps" age. What happened was we did a lot of changes on the record to update the song. Another one is actually "Crossroads". A lot of people will be surprised I picked that one because that (one) was our more mainstream-sounding song. The reason why I picked that one is because it was about my friend who died in a car accident many years (ago). It bothered me for several years until I finally actually had the balls to write a song about it. (laughs)

WULF: I'm sorry to hear that your friend died.

ANDY: Thank you.

WULF: OK...now, if I were to say there was a particularly difficult track to record on this album...not that I'm doubting your proficiency as musicians or anything like that, but was there a track that you guys felt, individually or otherwise, particularly hard to nail in the studio?

BOBBY: "Xenophobia".

KENNETH: Absolutely "Xenophobia".



WULF: Why?

BOBBY: The time changes. It goes from 8/4 to 4/4, it's at 400 beats-per-minute, and just in general to nail that eight-minute song in one take was a bitch. (laughs)

KENNETH: Yeah, it's tough.

ANDY: I would have to say "End of the World Watcher", surprisingly. You'd think that song's easy, but we had to do some interesting split-tracks in order to get the riff down, which was weird because I've never had to do a split-track before! (laughs) What it was was Eric Graves came up with a new technique because he's using pro-tools and he showed (us) new ways of making sure the riff will come out cleaner and I looked at him like he was on drugs when he asked me to do some of this stuff but I was like, "alright...". But I listened to him because a great mind will craft a great record and that's pretty much how we follow our formulas. We want the producers to help us craft the right record. Maybe what I think is right may not be what he (thinks) is right. He was on Prosthetic Records, he was in The Esoteric. I would say he would know more about what is going to sell out there than someone like me. So he showed us how to craft this record pretty proficiently, and I felt "Into the World Watcher" was the one song he showed us how to craft properly, and it took a long time to actually get that song done. It took about a month to do that song.

WULF: So more about the album. When I interviewed you for the radio show, which was not recorded, the album was kind of a concept album lyrically. Is that true?

ANDY: That is very true. Basically what starts off as a black plague...well, first it starts off with just the intro, which is "Revelation 9", which is basically starting off with the beginning...creation, whatever. Hot lava flowing everywhere. And then it skips ahead to the Dark Ages. We're talking about the Black Plague...the Bubonic Plague killing off everybody, destroying everything. Satan running rampant, owning the human race, which actually proves his dominance over God. That's what we wanted. Then it shows the progression to "Celebrity Media Whore"...false idols, not in the Christian sense, but we follow any type of false being whether it's Jesus Christ--

KENNETH: Paris Hilton.

ANDY: Paris Hilton, which is the modern Jesus, in my opinion. The story is about a girl who they grabbed out of high school and turned into a major star. Gave her everything...the typical story. She ends up becoming a crack whore at the end of the video, and dies of a heroin overdose. So we show the progression from there. Then by "Xenophobia", it skips to another story, where a kid, who is supposedly the Antichrist, is being hunted down by a bunch of Christians. What happens is that he lashes out and kills all the Christians that were going after him. It's basically like a fantasy story, kind of like the Blaxploitation films that they had back in the day where they showed black superheroes, like Supafly and stuff like that, destroying their white adversaries and showing black liberation. It's kind of in the same light, except it's atheist/Satanic liberation.

BOBBY: There's a point to all the time changes in "Xenophobia". All those weird jazz runs and all of that...that represents this kid's mind. He's going insane. And the "Xe-No!" (part) of "Xenophobia", those are representing stab wounds from it.

ANDY: And so basically we're telling a story from that...then, chapter five. This is "Blackened War". This is where we decided to start the concept because that song was actually a political song talking about the Iraq War originally. We changed up the lyrics and we talked about the War of Armageddon instead. Where everybody is against everybody, nuclear bombs are going off, everyone getting sick, getting destroyed. Diseases running rampant, and famine...everything. So basically everything's just chaotic. Then you've got "End of the World Watcher", which is basically the beginning of everything. This is about the year 2012. Now, granted, in my real-life thinking, I know I shouldn't even be saying this...I don't believe the world is going to end in 2012, but I know it's kind of a cool concept. (laughs) So what we did was link up with Phil Webb. He has muscular dystrophy. He's actually one of the head captains of the New York Death Militia in Nebraska. He helped write the lyrics to that song. He was showing us a lot of political concepts of destruction and chaos, and what we did is use his writings and incorporate (them into our songs). So we actually had help from Phil Webb because I promised him I would make sure to get one of his lyrics on one of our tracks and I'll go ahead and throw my input in there, that way it's still Elctrikchair's and I still have my writing credentials because I've got a weird thing about other people writing my music and lyrics for me. (laughs) At the very end, the last chapter, is "Dark Crystal". "Dark Crystal" was basically where the meteor comes. We make it sound all happy and make it sound more Avenged Sevenfold-y...I know I hate to use that term because it kills all of our metal credibility but the reason why I made it sound so happy is because everybody's dying. It's like a total contradiction. So everyone's getting fucking killed by this big ol' meteor, but it's--

BOBBY: It's ending the chaos.

ANDY: It's ending the chaos, so it's like a calm. So the final breakdown...the reason why we use the breakdown, was to show the final destruction. The world's dying. It's over.

BOBBY: The meteor just hit. The screaming represents everybody just screaming. We're thinking about doing a video of it where at the very end, right as we do the breakdown, we're disintegrating ourselves, but we're still playing the song and it will be a nice concept.




ANDY: That was basically supposed to be the end of the album. What we ended up doing was add a couple of tracks. The progressive jazz song, "Homeless", was actually supposed to be on "Citicorps", previously. We did not put it on there for the political content, because we already got enough heat for that last record, and it actually got pulled from shelves for attacking George W. Bush. We got blatantly attacked a terrorist band for calling him a stupid fuck, basically. (laughs)

BOBBY: On the front cover, I blatantly put George Bush with glowing eyes burning the Constitution. You couldn't get anymore blatant than that. (laughs)

ANDY: And as former punk rockers from back in the day we've always had a political concept. I've been around the crust punk scene...I'm talking about legitimate punk rock, not "Johnny Punk-Rocker" who wore Blink-182 (shirts). Blink-182 is not a punk band by the way. (laughs) Anyway, we ended up with the last song, "Crossroads". The reason why we made it such a long epic was because I promised the (family of the friend that died) that...well, what happened was that he was drunk driving and hit a cow, got decapitated. It bothered me for several years after the fact. I had a hard time dealing with that, because I actually lived with the guy. He was my roommate in school when I was going to Colorado State University at the time. That weekend we wore black armbands for his death. A lot of people thought a band-mate died but the one thing I regret is that we were supposed to do a show but it got jacked-up and he didn't get a chance to see us. I've been living with that for a long time, so we ended up writing "Crossroads" and making it really special to honor his family, so I put a little cheesy lyrics in there talking about skateboarding (and stuff). I talked about stuff that he liked to do, and I left myself out of that song. But it was really tough to deal with the whole thing, so it was my way of coping with it. Kind of like my final goodbye. So that's why with the album, if you guys order it through any type of distro or whatever, you'll see a dedication to my buddy Josh. And every year when the anniversary (of his death) comes up I write on his Facebook wall. He's still got it up, his family looks at it pretty (regularly), so I had a hard time dealing with that whole thing. There was a big funeral down in Trinidad, Colorado and if it wasn't for his death the metal show down there (on the radio) would have never happened. I put together a radio program as a dedication to his life and that's how that song kind of got started. So it was kind of in a way bringing metal to a smaller town, and I thought that was pretty cool. But that's why that song is so special. The last song we did "Remember the Fallen", I'm a huge German thrash fan and--

WULF: A Sodom cover.




ANDY: Oh, I love Sodom dude. We wanted to do it justice, I felt the Dark Funeral version wasn't very good in my personal opinion. A lot of people are going to stab me once they see this written. (laughs)

BOBBY: No, no, just the Gaahl fans and the Dark Funeral fans.

ANDY: I mean, I love black metal, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to make sure I did the song justice, so that was the key and so we just went ahead and threw that in as a bonus track.

WULF: OK, well I guess that covers the whole album then. If anybody doesn't have any final comments (I'll move on). So for future plans, then, you guys have talked about this being the only Kansas appearance you guys will be playing for your upcoming tour. Would you like to talk about that?

ANDY: With the upcoming tour we're going to start off here, but right now we're taking it slow because there's going to be a lot of breaks in between, just to get stuff together before the big summer tour. In the next two weeks we're going to be playing the El Diablo Metal Fest with Zombie Hate Brigade, they're on Crash Records.

BOBBY: It's the biggest metal fest in New Mexico, period.

WULF: Cool.

ANDY: So we're going to be going down there for that, and then we're going to come home for a couple weeks because I've got some (University of Kansas) stuff I've got to take care of. But then we're going to be hitting the road with the Exmortus guys and Witchaven. And we'll be jumping off to Bakersfield (California) and doing some shows out in California and we're going to be going all the way up into Vancouver, Canada and then just kind of going around the upper west coast of Canada and then sink back down and end the tour in Arizona. We're actually going to start the tour in Arizona and just kind of (go from there). We did a special show tonight because Bob's graduating from high school so we did this special show as an "invite-only" show. Basically it was a fun, party show for you guys. The bands were all good tonight and I really enjoyed everything.

BOBBY: This actually beat out my birthday show last year. We brought in bands from Colorado and bands from Omaha (Nebraska), we had the fire marshal shut down the Boobie Trap because it just got that full. I had more fun at this show.

ANDY: And it's funny too because originally we booked that show for Avenger of Blood. They broke up right before that show happened.

BOBBY: So we decided, "why don't we have Bob just pick his favorite bands we've played with over the years?" So I literally called them all up, one by one, and said, "get your asses down here, we're playing at the 'Trap, it's going to be sold out, get down here!" (laughs)

ANDY: And so we ensured that everyone was going to enjoy themselves.

WULF: Good! Well, OK, so if I'm not mistaken then, you guys have planned out a video now for "Celebrity Media Whore"?

ANDY: What we're going to do is hire an actress to (play) the "Teenage Mistress", is what we call her. Basically the queen damsel-in-distress that dies in a bloody mess. (laughs)

BOBBY: Basically, the Lindsay Lohan type of figure.

ANDY: Except she dies. (laughs) What we're going to do is to make it special we're going to shoot it at Oldfather (Studios), just because I want it done by local guys. We're actually going to have film majors do it, get them started. Since we got the slot on MTV 2's Headbanger's Ball to do this, we want to do it more independently. The problem was that we had a few lineup changes. We were actually supposed to have this done back in January. We didn't do it because we lost our guitar player and I don't even want to talk about what happened to our bass player because it's not appropriate for me to express what happened to him.

KENNETH: We had a keyboard player for awhile.

ANDY: And she didn't work out, so we ended up moving Ken off of keyboards (and on to bass).

KENNETH: I had been playing keyboards, so I moved on to play bass.

WULF: OK, now, just as a side-note, a sub-question, was it difficult to move from keyboards to bass? Not to doubt your bass-playing skills--

KENNETH: No, it wasn't because I also play guitar and to learn it on keyboards I learned the guitar parts as well, so I know the guitar parts, the bass parts, and the keyboard parts.

WULF: Interesting. Now to get close to the end here, is there a particular city that you guys enjoy playing more than others? Who has the craziest Elctrikchair fans, would you say?

BOBBY: Oh, Wisconsin. We got the wall of death going, they stopped the show. (laughs)

WULF: Wisconsin, where?

BOBBY: Milwaukee. We got the wall of death going during "Xenophobia", I think someone Youtube'd it and put it online. It got so out of hand they stopped it because the guard-rail snapped.

ANDY: I'm going to have to say New York City. CBGB's. It was weird because at the time we were doing the whole "New Generation of Thrash" thing, during the "Citicorps" era. We were transferring over still. We were melodic death, then we kept flirting with thrash still. We had a bunch of actual, straight up New York hardcore kids show up.



BOBBY: We have a lot of FSU fans out there. A lot of FSU fans.

ANDY: We never figured out why because we were never, like, a hardcore band. Not even remotely close, but what I felt was cool was that they created this thing called "harshing". They were literally jumping off the stage while hardcore dancing and moshing at the same time. They were beating the shit out of each other, like cage fighting, a guy who broke his nose put it back into place. That was probably the most violent pit, to this day.

BOBBY: The stage was collapsing. I got hit by a tooth. They were jumping on the sound system. It was some crazy shit, and this place was packed like a sardine can, so I'm going, "if I die, at least it will be worth it!" (laughs) Henry Rollins would be proud. (laughs)

ANDY: That was the one highlight in our career that we actually got to embrace the venue that pretty much birthed rock 'n' roll that mattered. That's what I call it. I don't say just, "metal, punk, whatever". It all came from that club.

BOBBY: This was the venue that when we found out we were playing there, Andy and I looked at each other and we acted like a couple of teenage school girls.

ANDY: I'd waited my whole career to play there. If Elctrikchair just failed after that, I'd die a happy man. That's all I wanted.

BOBBY: That's really what kicked it off to take this even more seriously than we already were. After that, we looked at each other like "what else can we do?" Next goal? Wacken. (laughs)

WULF: That would be badass, for sure. OK, I have two more questions to ask. Who is the craziest band that you've ever toured with, or who is the craziest band you've played with behind the scenes?

ANDY: That's a tough one. I would have to say...oh God...

WULF: Feel free to say why or not (laughs)

ANDY: Dundee Strangler or...I would have to say...what was the other band that was all jacked up? Throwing beer bottles in the back...what were they called? I'm drawing a blank...Stillborn Portrait. They were literally doping up before every show (laughs).

BOBBY: That band disappeared in the middle of the tour. It was kind of like, "uhhh...OK?" (laughs)

ANDY: Yeah, no one knows what happened, they just kind of dropped off, out of nowhere.

WULF: Crazy dudes, huh? What was this band called?

ANDY: Stillborn Portrait. Out of San Francisco. They're just very bad drug addicts, but Dundee (Strangler) was crazier because we went to Perkins and they were throwing glasses and food at each other...it was ridiculous. I've never seen anything like it.

BOBBY: It was one of those, "we don't know that band" moments. (laughs)

WULF: Now my last question is, before I take any more of your time, you guys are going on tour...I want to know if there are any plans for your future, besides your music video? As far as new music goes, what's going to happen?

ANDY: Actually, I can answer this question probably better than anybody else. We're going in a very new direction on this (next) album. On "Xenophobia" we wanted to showcase every aspect of our speed...how many notes we can throw into a song, out fast we can play. On this new album we're going to emphasize slower tempos. We're going to emphasize the doom metal aspect of our career. We flirted with it tonight. We jammed it (out) a little bit. But it's only going to be for a couple tracks. We're still going to keep the traditional Elctrikchair sound, we're not going to forget who we are. We know who we are, and so we're going to continue doing what we're doing, but at the same time we're going to add new elements. On my own end I've been listening to a lot of Amorphis and Anathema.

WULF: Old or new Amorphis and Anathema?

ANDY: With Anathema, I would have to say more old, because they're straight up doom/sludge. Also I would say new Amorphis, on the other end, because they're more progressive, they dropped the death metal element, except on "Silent Waters".

BOBBY: Theme-wise, we're getting a little more experimental. This is going to be based on the human mind and how it slowly goes insane.

ANDY: We're doing more concepts. I feel that the band is talented enough to pull off actual concepts, we're telling stories now. I want people to pay that ten dollars and realize that they're getting their money's worth. I don't want cheap songs on the next record, I want masterpieces. If it's not a masterpiece, it doesn't belong on that record. That's how I feel about it and that's how it's going to be. You know deep down not everyone's not going to like what you're doing, but at the same time you've got to be satisfied knowing in your mind that it was worth every penny that you put into it.

WULF: Alright, well I think that about does it! Would anyone like to add anything otherwise?

ANDY: I'd like to thank our fans, over the years, who have come and gone. We respect you guys. The fans are the one's who make the band, hands down.

BOBBY: I want to give a shout-out to one of my friends over the years who supported me when we were playing to the sound guy. Not the people that come back and turn around and go "oh you're big now, I'm your best friend!" No, I'm talking the legitimate people, the die-hards. And they still follow us, to this day I get phone calls every day from them. I've got to thank them.

Interview with Erik Danielsson of Watain!!

I should preface this post with somewhat of a warning-- it's not a very good interview...at all. While it's clear that Erik was fucking around with me by being creepy and weird, unfortunately for me I was like a deer in the headlights. Since I've never been in this situation before I wasn't quite sure how to handle it, so this is definitely the weirdest and most awkward interview I've ever done. Also, throughout most of the interview there were these strange noises that made Erik sound like he was speaking to me from another dimension...bizarre electronic screeches, white noise, etc.
It's also difficult to transcribe this interview because it's a challenge sometimes to make out exactly what Erik is saying, so in order to really do this interview justice I should probably just upload the audio so you all can hear it for yourselves...however, since I'm pretty damn lazy that will probably never happen, so unfortunately you're going to be stuck with this for now.

Phone interview conducted on May 12, 2010.



(high-pitched weird noises start)
WULF: Alright, so I'd like to start off by saying your new album is excellent. We were lucky enough to get a digital promo copy via Season of Mist, and when we listened to it we were blown away.

ERIK: ...Blown away...

WULF: I'm sorry?

ERIK: ...Blown away...

WULF: Yeah. Um...for those who have heard the album on your end how has the reception been so far?

ERIK: They've been blown away...

WULF: They've been blown away? That's awesome. Most of the songs are very aggressive but my particular favorites are "Death's Cold Dark" and "Wolves Curse", because the atmosphere I feel is perfect. Do you have a particular song that stands out to you, or a particular favorite track on the album?

ERIK: No.

WULF: No? Um...I have a question about "Wolves Curse", there--

ERIK: (interrupting) What!?

WULF: The samples in "Wolves Curse", did you record those yourself or did you find them out a film or something?

ERIK: (inaudible)

WULF: Did you have difficulties while in the studio recording or are there any songs that you or the rest of the band had difficulty nailing down while in the studio?

ERIK: ...No. (inaudible)

WULF: I see. The uh--

ERIK: There are no (inaudible) around here, (Wulf). (inaudible)

WULF: The cover art for "Lawless Darkness" reminds me of something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story. As I understand, the art is by Zbigniew Bielak--
(shrill electronic feedback interrupts me)
Is he a personal friend of the band?

ERIK: What?!



WULF: Is the artist Zbigniew Bielak a personal friend of the band, or did he have any inspirations for his art besides your music?

ERIK: No.

WULF: I see.

ERIK: I'm sorry, will you repeat that question?

WULF: I was wondering, since I saw the cover for "Lawless Darkness"--
(more shrill feedback interrupts me)
It reminded me of something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story, so I was wondering if the artist Zbigniew Bielak--

ERIK: (interrupting, inaudible, more shrill feedback)

WULF: As I understand it, you're about to come to America to play Maryland Deathfest, and it looks like you're going to play a bunch of festivals in Europe.

ERIK: (inaudible, abrasive feedback continues)

WULF: What's all that's noise?

ERIK: (inaudible)

WULF: Your band is rehearsing?

ERIK: No. Sorry, what's the question?

WULF: OK, so my next question is, as I understand it, you guys are covered in animal blood when you perform live. I was curious, does this ever call into question any your own health's safety or anything?

ERIK: What?!

WULF: I mean, do you guys ever get sick from covering yourselves in animal blood?

ERIK: You're breaking up...

WULF: I said, do you guys ever get sick from covering yourselves in animal blood or anything? Isn't that kind of dangerous?

(screeching feedback continues for a bit)

ERIK: Wait a second (Wulf)
(feedback now stops)
...and the band is done. They're going to rehearse. Wait a second.

WULF: Are you guys in the middle of rehearsing right now?

ERIK: Always, always, always (Wulf), always.

WULF: (laughs) OK, so I was wondering, since you guys are always covered in blood when you play live, I was wondering is that dangerous or anything to your health?

ERIK: (a pause) Of course. What do you mean?

WULF: I mean, have any of you ever gotten really sick or had to go to the hospital because of it?

ERIK: No. The people that are not of the Devil get sick and go to the hospital all the time. That's fine, and how it should be.

WULF: I see.

ERIK: We like it when people go to the hospital...a lot.




WULF: (laughs) I see. You've been doing a lot of touring and have been around now for more than a decade. It's obvious that you guys have gained quite a reputation as being very prominent in the metal scene as being one of the most extreme black metal bands on Earth. So I was wondering if this will ever be captured in a live DVD of yours or anything?

ERIK: No, fuck DVD's. I mean, fuck that, you know? I mean, even fuck talking about it because I'm so fucking tired (of talking about it), like, "yeah, we're these extreme guys", yeah, so what? You know, let us be that. I don't like to talk about it, I like to be it, you know? If you please.

WULF: I understand.

ERIK: This is not some sensational shock value band, you can go to Gwar or Dark Funeral for that, you know? Fuck it. That's not what we're here for, you know?

WULF: I understand. So earlier I asked you a question and I'm not sure if you heard me or not, but it was about the "Lawless Darkness" album art because it reminds me of something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story.

ERIK: Well I gave you an answer, didn't you hear it?

WULF: I didn't hear it very well, no.

ERIK: That's because what I was trying to say can really not be put into words. I was trying to express it with feedback and noise because that's pretty much the only thing I can reasonably say about it.

WULF: So that's what that was all about earlier?

ERIK: Well, this whole interview is about Watain so that's what all the answers are about as well.

WULF: (laughs) Well, I must say it is by far the most interesting interview I've ever done. I haven't done many, but it's definitely very interesting so I think you succeeded in that.

ERIK: We succeed in everything, (Wulf). I'm just answering your questions, so you can give yourself a big fat clap on the shoulder.

WULF: Well thanks. That's pretty much all the questions I had, just right there.



ERIK: Mmm. There you have it. Now you can die a peaceful death, seeing that you've got the answer to every question in your life that you ever needed answered.

WULF: (laughs) That's true.

ERIK: I'm happy for you, (Wulf). I look forward to that day myself.

WULF: (laughs) Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys sometime when you come on tour if you ever make it out to the Midwest.

ERIK: Mmm. I'm sure we will.

WULF: I wait for you.

ERIK: When you least expect it.

WULF: (laughs) Alright, well enjoy the Maryland Deathfest and best of luck to you all on the road.

ERIK: Yeah, watch it. That's all I can say.

WULF: (laughs) Thanks. Have a wonderful (time with) the rest of rehearsing, and enjoy the rest of your day.

ERIK: Yeah.

WULF: Thanks.

ERIK: All of my love to you, (Wulf).

WULF: Thank you. All of my love to you as well.

ERIK: Bye-bye.

Tales from the Grim North

Hails metalheads of the Southern Prairies! I write to you from a land far to the north, beyond the great vast forest of the Pacific Northwest and the majestic, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The land here is both grim and epic-- mist swirls around the forest-covered mountains, the smell of the sea is ever-present, and it is not uncommon to spot a soaring bald eagle or hear a harsh shriek of a raven or crow echo among the trees while adventuring in the wild outside of the village.



While I am here to visit my family, in order to help pay for travelling expenses I have acquired a job at a local tavern, serving the finest food and drink in town. Currently, the tavern music consists of only indie-rock and other types of musical nonsense, but I am working on changing this very soon. They believe that metal has no place in their establishment. Bah! They shall see their patronage triple (at least!) when people passing by hear the hallowed songs of glory and adventure emanating from within! By Varg Vikernes' facial scar, I will spread the gospel of metal to this town, even if it is to be the death of me!



I trust my co-DJs are continuing to provide quality aural destruction in my absence, but make no mistake...I am still in the game! Right now I am in the process of attempting to acquire some air-time up here on Sitka's community radio, so expect more news on this in the future!

Metal Nostradamus: The Shape of Metal to Come

I've never portrayed myself as a soothsayer, nor even as a Nostradamus impersonator, but I feel as though I have somewhat of a good prediction of what the next "big thing" in metal will be. That "next big thing" is going to be Post-Death Metal and I will tell you why.

For years we have been inundated with countless Death Metal (DM) bands looking to top each other in speed, brutality, and technicality. Multitudes of Cannibal Corpse clones have practically overtaken the metal globe. Needless to say, we're at a point now where the DM scene has become oversaturated with unoriginal mindlessness. Especially with the last decade lacking any real creative leaps and bounds (save for a few bands), DM definitely needs a place to go.

As a sidenote, I hate to sound so negative, because there are still some Death Metal bands of the last few years that I think are doing interesting work. Some that I have enjoyed immensely have been Obscura, Nile, Immolation, and Necrophagist (and from more than a few years ago, Gorguts...though keep reading to see and hear the new news on Gorguts). Besides Nile and Gorguts, it may be arguable that none of these bands are doing anything completely original, but they are certainly building on a an already established foundation.

In the past decade, we saw the emergence of Post-Metal (with the likes of Neurosis, Isis, and Pelican) and Post-Black metal (Wolves in the Throne Room, Altar of Plagues, and Velvet Cocoon). In the case of the former and in some ways the latter, many of their musical ideas originate with Post-Rock pioneers in the 90s. Bands like Slint, Tortoise, Mogwai were/are called Post-Rock because they completely tore apart the rulebook for Rock. These bands ignored the standard organization of the rock song and replaced it with a honed sense of dynamics, put a focus on atmospherics (sometimes over musicianship), and completely disregarded vocals (with some exceptions). The difference between Post-Rock and Post-Metal/Black Metal is that the Post-Rock pioneers were re-writing the rules whereas the Post-Metallers were just merely taking influence from these re-written rules.

Now that that history lesson is out of the way, let's take the focus back to DM. It is my forethought that DM will take a turn for the experimental, and I don't mean a new Cynic album. There are two bands I think whom are dabbling with what I might consider Post-Death Metal. These two bands are Portal and Impetuous Ritual. The fact that they currently share members may not be too surprising. Neither band has really re-written the rulebook for DM as far as I'm concerned, but they are certainly interrogating it. Each band has sort of an other worldly, lurching sound to their particular brand of Death Metal. In a sense, they create a sort of wall of sound wherein the atmospherics are more important than what is necessarily actually being played.

I think of all the sub-genres of metal, DM may one that is the most conservative musically, and by that, I mean the least willing to experiment. I can't really offer a reason for this, but I might speculate that there is simply no room for experimentation since DM is so extreme in terms of speed, brutality, and technicality. Every minute of every song is filled with 1000 brutal chromatic chord progressions at 300 BPM. There is certainly a formula and most bands stick to it (a)religiously.

What it comes down to is that DM bands have taken the sub-genre to its logical extreme in terms of the three characteristics I previously mentioned. Now is the time is ripe for DM bands to drop some acid and get a little fucking weird.

I can already hear it...a brutal slam death metal breakdown sandwiching a complete wash of downtuned improvised noise, the slow buildup of a death metal riff from near silence coupled with electronic glitches gradually interweaving in amongst themselves, and an uncomfortable black drone underneath/over a bomb blast...

Thus spake the prophet!

-Judge Dredd


BY THE WAY...WHERE THE FUCK IS GORGUTS WHEN YOU NEED THEM!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGFyevUf5gE

Just thought you should know... >:)

Interview with Misha "Bulb" Mansoor of Periphery!!

Periphery Official Myspace:
www.myspace.com/periphery

Phone interview conducted on May 12, 2010.

WULF: To start off with, I know you guys have probably heard this like, a million times, but your new album is amazing. It's completely nuts.

MISHA: Oh, dude, thank you so much! I'm so glad that you like it!

WULF: I don't know if it's too much for me to say "I've never heard anything like it before" but I feel it's really unique.

MISHA: Thank you, dude.

WULF: Anyway, I'd like to know how the reception is for this new album on your end.

MISHA: You know, it's good, but I don't know...I always feel like I'm looking out for and trying to find the bad reviews because I like to torture myself. I've invested a large part of myself into this album for the last five years and I've put so much into it. I don't know, I like seeing good reviews, but I prefer honest ones. There's definitely people who dislike it or who dislike aspects of it...as with any art form that's to be expected. Sometimes I find reviews (where) people dislike it and they say why, and it's like "alright, fair enough." But sometimes I see reviews and I'm just like, "dude, did you even listen to our album?"
(laughs)
And so, I'm kind of ready for it. But overall I'd say the response has actually been really good, or a lot better than I expected it to be, because I was kind of nervous.

WULF: The first time I actually ever heard about you guys before we got your CD was through MetalSucks and I guess that's kind of coincided with this album, because I've been reading about you guys there and we've got your CD, and so...anyway, I was looking at your Myspace and is it true that you guys have three guitarists in your band?

MISHA: We have three guitarists in the band, yes.




WULF: Yeah, because I saw that in the lineup and I wasn't sure if one guy was (just a touring guitarist). I was wondering (though), doesn't that ever get confusing in the studio or live? Your songs are pretty technical and crazy...

MISHA: Well, here's the way the works-- it just so happened that I wrote the grand majority of the songs on the album, I wrote all of them except for the last song, "Racecar", which I wrote with Jake (Bowen, guitar), and so when writing by myself or with Jake we just tend to write for the sake of writing good songs, and not so much thinking about how we're going to do it live, and since the beginning it's always posed a problem when we've played with two guitars for a brief period, we were always like "wow, we have to keep cutting parts out that are kind of essential", and we can't ever really get the full sound. We write with so many layers, and even with three guitarists there are a bunch of times when it's not enough and we're deleting this or integrating backing tracks because we tend to compose more when we're writing and not really thinking, like, limitations, or how we're going to do (it) live, it's like, "well, we'll figure that out later." And so that necessitated three guitars, because at least (with) three guitars we can get all the cool-looking and sounding riffs out and all the riffy-riffs out in front, and then leave the more ambient, backing track stuff for the backing tracks when we do integrate those. And now that we don't have backing tracks at least we're not compromised severely by having two guitars, so it's always been sort of a thing we have to do out of necessity from the beginning.

WULF: When you guys are playing live, I'm assuming that you've got one guy holding down the rhythm while the other two are doing harmonies and stuff, or--

MISHA: Well, we usually split it up. Having written my parts, I usually like to play a lot of the rhythm parts because they're more fun, and I play my leads. It's the same with Jake on the stuff that he's written. But when it's my stuff I like to split it up, like, everybody has lead parts, everybody has rhythm parts, everybody has clean and ambient parts. I want it to kind of seem like everybody is a lead and rhythm guitarist and split it up as evenly as possible. It's always changing, depending on the song. On one song, it may look like Jake or Alex is actually the lead guitarist of the band, and I kind of like that. And on other songs one of us will each have a lead part, for example.




WULF: So you're all doing lead guitar stuff and rhythm at some points too?

MISHA: Yeah, we're all doing everything.

WULF: That's cool man, I like that. I was surprised when I heard it too because from the way it was described to me I thought it would sound a little bit different. It's pretty aggressive stuff but also (with) both the harsh and clean singing it's also really passionate, and I think when you said "layers", that was a good word because there's a lot going on in the songs. Is there a favorite track in particular that you have for the album? I really like "The Walk", just because the guitar atmospherics are really cool, and the drums are crazy with the rhythms. Is there a particular track that you like, then?

MISHA: There is! I'm really, really proud of "Racecar", the album closer, for a few reasons. One, it's the one song that sort of encapsulates exactly our (sound). Maybe the only reason it can is because it's fifteen minutes long and can go through all the sort of moods that we go through, but also because it's the only song on the album that I wrote with someone else, and as much as I've been writing everything myself, that's not something that I plan on doing forever and I really do enjoy writing with other band members, and that's always something that we will do more of when we all have more free time.
(laughs)
Especially when that's the main limitation. But it was a lot of fun to write that song, and it came out just right, I think, and I'm really proud of that, so that's probably my favorite one at the moment. One thing that's interesting that I've noticed, when you were asking earlier about how (the album) has been received and all that, is one thing that makes me happy, and as subjective as music is and everything, I've definitely noticed that everybody's favorite song is a different song, which makes me really happy, personally. Because I really don't like it when one song gets more attention than the next, and I don't know, maybe it's because they're all like my babies and I want them all to be loved equally, or something. But it's like, ("Icarus Lives!") got a lot of attention, that's our single and there's a video for that, but I don't necessarily think it's our best song. I think it's very catchy and very good at grabbing people right off the bat, but it's interesting to see how, when people sit down with the album, they'll pick two or three of their favorites off the album, and it's always different, to the point where every song is someone's favorite song, which makes me very happy.

WULF: Yeah, it's not like there's just this one song and then people feel like the rest are filler.

MISHA: Like, "why did you put that on the album?! Nobody likes it!"
(laughs)
But (for our album), it's not just that somebody likes it but it's somebody's favorite song, which (would have) made a big difference if we had not put it on the album. That's something that makes me really happy, and I was interested in seeing what your song would be, and "The Walk" is kind of off-the-wall for me, especially because it's one of the older songs on the album, that song is so boring to me now.
(laughs)
It's five years old, it's naturally (that way). But I'm really happy that you like it, I really am.

WULF: Because I'm always kind of curious as to how things go on in the studio, since the last track is so long, would you say, then, that it was the most difficult track you guys had (during) recording or was there (another) track in particular that was hard to nail?

MISHA: That was definitely one of the hardest songs to write vocals for. I think "Buttersnips"...that was a very hard song to get the vocals right on, but I mean, they were all very hard. "Ow My Feelings" took a lot of work with the vocals. It was mainly the vocals because the songs themselves had already been written and tracking them went pretty fast, that didn't take too long. Writing "Racecar" was actually extremely easy and that's maybe why I like it so much, because it was the first time I wrote a full song with Jake, and we didn't know the song was going to be 15 minutes long. We were just writing riffs together. It was just ideas and ideas and ideas and ideas, and we had like three sessions three days in a row and (during) the first session we did about 6 minutes of the song, and (during) the second session I did 4 or 5 minutes by myself, and (during) the third session we wrote the last bit of the song. We just kept on having ways to bring back themes and make it cohesive, but (also) make it longer. We never (meant) to write a song that long, it's kind of crazy to have a song that long but it just sort of ended up being that way.

WULF: Yeah, sometimes some songs just (get written that way).

MISHA: That's why some songs on our album are 3 minutes long, and one is 15 because when we feel the song is done, and we're out of riffs, and we're like "yeah, we said what needs to be said," everything that can be said musically and lyrically, then we're like "alright, it's done."
(laughs)

WULF: That's awesome, man. Just out of curiosity, who wrote the lyrics to the album? Was it you, or was it Spencer, or--

MISHA: No, it was kind of everybody. Some were written by our second singer, Casey (Sabol), some were written by Chris (Barretto), our third singer, and some were written by Spencer. Some were written by our bassist, Tom (Murphy), who actually wrote a lot of the vocal parts. The only thing I didn't do was the vocals. Those were produced and engineered by Spencer's friend, Matt. There's a real sort of amalgamation of all these ideas and efforts that hopefully came out somewhat cohesively...I think it did.

WULF: Yeah, it's great, man. So you guys are about to go to Australia, and did you say that it was tonight that you were leaving or tomorrow?

MISHA: No, we're leaving tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon.

WULF: Wow, that's crazy, man! I'm assuming that you guys have not been to Australia before, like, to play.

MISHA: No, we've never really left the country other than Canada, as far as (together as) a band. I've been to Australia in the past but (have) never gone there to tour or anything like that.




WULF: Well, I just want to say congratulations on that. Also, I've heard that Australia, especially for the metal scene or the extreme music scene, can be kind of crazy. Speaking of touring in the United States, what city would you say has been the craziest, as far as craziest Periphery fans?

MISHA: Honestly, Canada's been really good to us. That's why I'm kind of excited about Australia because I've heard that their fans are kind of crazy like that because they feel like they don't get American bands that often, and Australian fans are even more so desperate (than Canadian fans) for those bands. But I'm expecting the crowds to be kind of crazy there too. But yeah, Toronto and Montreal have been pretty cool. In Oshawa, Ontario, we played this, tiny, tiny venue, but kids were going crazy there! And L.A. is always great to us. California in general is really good to us. I don't know, usually we do better in major markets. I'm trying to think...my memory is so bad. I do remember the Canadian shows being particularly intense, and the fans are intense there. They're really into the bands, I like it. And all of my friends who have toured in Australia talk about how great fans in Australia are. I really can't wait to go down there and meet them.

WULF: Yeah, I'm sure you guys are really pumped. You guys are going with Dillinger Escape Plan, have you talked to them yet? I don't know if they've been down to Australia yet, but if they have, have have they said anything about it?

MISHA: I'm sure they've been to Australia before. Dillinger has been one of my favorite bands in the world forever, so on a personal level that's kind of one of my bucket list items, right there, that I can check off. It's kind of a dream come true, I can't really believe that it's happening, it's like too much. I've just sort of resigned myself to not thinking about it. But yeah, it's going to be crazy. I'm just so honored to be able (to go on tour with them), it's going to be fun to see them every night. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster is also on this tour. I haven't really checked them out but I heard their music at some point and I really dug it, and I knew I really dug it because I didn't know who it was and I was like, "whoa! Who is this?" And (my bandmates) were like, "that's the band we're going to be touring with!" And I'm like, "Oh, that's great!"
(laughs)

WULF: Yeah, it's really rockin' stuff. But yeah, we've been fans of Dillinger for a while and so I'm pretty jealous. I'm not even in a band but it's still pretty cool.
(laughs)
But OK, my last question is a question I always like to ask bands-- who would you say, as far as tours that you've done, is the craziest band that you've ever toured with?

MISHA: Craziest? Like in what sense?

WULF: Craziest, like, maybe not necessarily onstage, but like behind the scenes. Like, wild dudes or just really wacky or whatever.

MISHA: Um...you know what? I think I might have to disappoint you with that because all the bands that we've toured with have been pretty chill, man. I think for the most part, maybe it's the kind of music we play or the kind of tours that we go on, but we've just had the best luck, we end up loving all the bands that we go on tour with.

WULF: No crazy black metal bands or anything?
(laughs)

MISHA: No! They're all chill, really easy-going dudes, so it's like...they might party, but even when they party it's kind of in a chill way and they have a good time and don't go "rock-'n'-roll crazy". And plus, I don't know, maybe it's because we're a little bit older, we're all like (in our mid-20's), but for me personally, partying and going crazy kind of lost its charm a few years ago. So now I just kind of like to take it easy and have a good time, or just like, sleep and relax.
(laughs)
So I'm sorry to disappoint, but maybe it's just my bad memory.
(laughs)

WULF: Well you keep on talking about your bad memory and I was thinking maybe it was due to other things or something!
(laughs)

MISHA: No, it's my bad memory...or maybe we had such a crazy with some band that I forgot it all, drank it away.
(laughs)
But honestly, most of the bands that we tour with, a fair bit of them smoke a lot of weed, and if you smoke weed you're kind of chill, you're not really going nuts. So maybe we need to tour with some bands that do a lot of coke or something, then we can get some crazy stories.
(laughs)
No, but we've just been really lucky in that sense because we like bands that are chill, like us, so we've always had the best time on tour with all the bands, we got along great with everyone, and maybe that doesn't make for crazy stories but (we've made) good friendships and had good times.

WULF: Yeah, I didn't necessarily need to hear any crazy stories or anything, so that's a totally valid answer too, because it's just a little more relaxed and the stereotype on the road is that it can be crazy or whatever, so this is cool too. It's a little different.

MISHA: Well I'm sure it can (get a little crazy), but I mean, you gotta remember, we're a bunch of dorky musicians who play progressive metal, we're not rock 'n' roll, man.
(laughs)
We're not sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. I mean, even if we wanted to be, it just wouldn't be there. You could just come to our show and ask us about our gear and we love it. That's kind of our scene, that's kind of what it's always been and kind of what I'm expecting it to be, but if shit goes on I'm down to see it! But I'm happy with whatever I can get.

WULF: Well, that's cool too, man. Anyway, that's all the questions I've got for you, so I just want to end by saying thanks for taking the time to talk to me--

MISHA: Thank you for interviewing us, man! We really appreciate it.

Interview with Johnny Roberts of Woe of Tyrants!!

WOE OF TYRANTS OFFICIAL MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/wot

Phone interview conducted on May 6, 2010


WULF: First of all, I want to say it's a pleasure talking to you. I really like the new album, "Threnody". I was actually blown away by your last album, "Kingdom of Might", so it's great to see that you guys pulled off another great record. How has the reception been so far on your end for this new album?

JOHNNY: It's been pretty cool, especially given the time that we had to record the album. We had only two or three months in total to write it and only two and a half weeks to record. We didn't really know what the response would be since we brought in a bunch of new ideas so we didn't know how people were going to receive some of what we had written, because we knew it was a bit of a different direction. I'm glad that a lot of people have been digging it though. Especially the new material live. It's been going over pretty well so far. We're thankful for that.

WULF: Good, man! I hadn't heard of you guys before the last album and so when I got the digital promo for it from Metal Blade, I was like "whoa! Who are these guys?!" It was great to work out to also.
(laughs)

JOHNNY: Right on, man. That's awesome, thanks.

WULF: While I liked the whole album, right now I'm really digging "Venom Eye", which is badass because you guys got Dusty from Between the Buried and Me to be on it, also. "Singing Surrendur" is also really beautiful. As a side note, just out of curiosity, who programmed or played the synth parts on the album?

JOHNNY: That was our singer (Chris Catanzaro), he does keyboards on the side. He actually learned how to play keyboards while we were writing and recording "Kingdom of Might". He just really stuck with it and it got to a certain point where he was writing some pretty cool stuff. We were on the road for the better part of 2009 before we started writing for "Threnody", and he had some cool parts and some ideas and (so) once we started writing we were like, "Hey man, you can write the parts just as long as you can play them live."
(laughs)
We can throw in whatever, so he had some ideas and Jamie King, our producer that we went in the studio with, and he collaborated with (Chris), so to speak. He had all the stuff in the studio for keyboards and (we used them) in a bunch of songs.




WULF: Yeah, it's cool man. I'm actually going to get to Jamie King in a second because I had some questions about him, but what song on the album would you say is your personal favorite, or which do you feel turned out the best?

JOHNNY: It changes a lot, there's a lot of songs...I would say, overall, "Lightning Over Atlantis". That song is a song that our rhythm guitar player, Matt, and I wrote in a matter of days and we pretty much come up with all the original ideas. He had a bunch of the riffs in the song already laid out when we started writing it and structuring it together and it just sort of went with the flow. It didn't change much over the first two days of writing it but we went in the studio and (put) the solos on top of it and whatnot, but I think that song, as far as the production and the ideas with the whammy he does in the beginning and everything, I think that turned out to be my favorite.



WULF: Right on man! Yeah, I was surprised, "Kingdom of Might" came out at like the beginning of last year, and we're not too far into 2010 and already you've got this new album. I think that's saying a lot, considering also that your music is pretty meticulously put together, really technical, so I want to congratulate you on getting that done, it's a pretty amazing feat. So, my question is: did you have any difficulty during this recording process? Since your songs are pretty technical I would imagine it might be kind of hard to nail in the studio, not to doubt the technical ability of you guys, but you guys are playing some pretty challenging stuff.

JOHNNY: Yeah, we all pretty much made sure we were keeping our heads in the game and even during the writing process (which) we started in August and we had the tour with God Dethroned (from) the middle of September to late October, that was like a (month-long) chunk out of the writing process to go on the road so we did a little bit of writing while out on the road but we came right back home and started writing throughout November, then recorded in December. So it was a very stressful three or four months total and so we had to all make sure our heads were in the game, we were practicing every day, like six to eight hours a day writing this music. We didn't have anything else to do so (when we came) home from tour we were like, "fuck, we really gotta go in with this." So we did that for awhile and by the time we hit recording actually and got in the studio, we had been playing so much that a lot of the stuff was pretty much in our heads, but some of the songs were painless, even the songs that were the (hardest to write) were the ones that we were playing the most and were the easiest in the studio. We pretty much went in and laid the tracks down pretty easily. All the drums were done in one day, the first day that we were in there.

WULF: Wow! Congratulations!

JOHNNY: Yeah, we we did like four of five hours of recording. I had been playing so much at that time I was just warmed up. I just went in there, drank some Mountain Dew, and got it done. (As for) the guitars, there weren't very many parts that (Nick) Dozer, our lead guitar player, got stuck on or anything.

WULF: What was it like working with Jamie King?

JOHNNY: He was a beast, he was awesome. He really gets ideas, once he was going through the drum tracks and guitars and whatnot. As far as production and his end of the spectrum, we didn't have very many ideas. We were so busy writing the music, we were like "any input is appreciated", and he knew that and (inaudible). He did the track "Venus Orbit", the instrumental track on ("Threnondy"). Dozer and (Jamie King) wrote that one together. King did a lot of the percussion and instruments on there, he did most of that. When recording, he got the best take out of everyone. He was very good with (our vocalist) and our vocal production and all that too. He definitely knew what we were going for.



WULF: That's awesome, man! So I noticed that you guys are from Chillicothe, Ohio. I was kind of curious, what's the metal scene like there? I would think there would be a lot of black metal bands from there because according to Wikipedia it's a designated "Tree City, USA" by the Arbor Foundation, but what would you say?

JOHNNY: (laughs) There's definitely not black metal. There's tons of like, southern and country (people). There's all kinds of country people. Some of our original members were from the hills of Chillicothe. Our original lead guitar player that was on "Kingdom of Might", he was real big into blues and country, and that's actually what he's doing now. He's probably rocking out on an acoustic guitar (right now). As far as metal goes, it's pretty dead. There's isn't much going on here. There's newer bands coming out now, recently, now that the scene has started picking up, but we were one of the only death metal bands to come around (from) there. (There was) one other death metal band, In Despise, who has since broken up. There's not much of a metal scene in Chillicothe, you have to travel north to like, Columbus. (It has) a bigger metal scene. There's not too many venues around here, it's since changed in the past five years or so once we started.

WULF: I'm in the Midwest too, man, I know how it goes. I'm in Kansas, so--

JOHNNY: It's hit or miss, man, it's hit or miss pretty much anywhere you go around here.

WULF: So you just finished up a tour with Overkill, Vader, God Dethroned, Warbringer, and Evile. How did that tour go? And which was the craziest city that you guys played in?

JOHNNY: (laughs) Well, the tour itself was crazy. Obviously, it being a six-band package, it was a long show every night, which is not at all a bad thing with all those bands because if you checked out every one of the bands it was really crazy. Really good music, real fun nights all the way through tour, but I'd have to say the craziest night was the very last night of the tour in New York City. You probably heard in the news about the whole bomb scare. We played there that night, the night that they found the Pathfinder. The show's going on, and we were playing right around when they found it at 6:30, and our guitar player went outside (after our set) to get something to eat and all that stuff started going on and they started blocking off (the streets). The Pathfinder was sitting right at 25th and Broadway, which is the address to that venue, so there was a show with like 1500 kids going on in the basement of this place and they knew they couldn't cancel the show so it just kept going on. Once the show was over we couldn't get our vans anywhere near the venue to get our equipment or anything, man, it was ridiculous. We just had to wait to the next day until everything cleared up. Aside from the stress of that huge show going on that was undoubtedly the craziest show on that tour, and then that stuff happening on top of it was just...a way to end the tour, you know?
(laughs)

WULF: Damn, man! That's nuts! OK, so I know we're running out of time, but I've got one last question. So of all those bands you toured with on Killfest 2010, who would you say was the craziest or rowdiest band behind the scenes?

JOHNNY: (laughs) I thought it was pretty chill, there was lots of work and it was a really busy tour, but any time we had a chance to hang out and party I'd have to say Warbringer, man. Those dudes are crazy. Even if we had work to do, they'd find a way to hang out and party while we were doing it.
(laughs)
It was just like a huge party whenever we were hanging out with those dudes. They're real good friends (of ours).

WULF: Cool, man. Well, right on, I know that we're out of time and you've got another interview to do, so anyway I just want to say thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me! Hopefully sometime here soon we'll be able to see you here in Lawrence or Kansas City!

JOHNNY: Oh, for sure man!

"Die By the Sword": Heavy Metal, the 'Culture of Alienation', and Hipsters

Arguably, one element of the heavy metal subculture that has allowed it to not only survive but to thrive (albeit, with some droughts) during the several decades it has been in existence is the culture of alienation that exists within it. With some exceptions, there has been little that has changed concerning the social norms of the heavy metal subculture. A primary reason for this is the fact that metalheads cast out those who don't follow the social norms of the subculture. Those that they are cast out are presenting somewhat of a threat to the subculture at large. This social deviance is addressed in a variety of ways, but most commonly by labeling some fans as "poseurs" and some bands as playing "false metal". In recent years, both the hipster subculture and mainstream culture have embraced (or re-embraced, in the case of the latter) heavy metal. The hipster subculture has embraced heavy metal in an ironic way while the mainstream has yet again embraced it as a viable sub-genre of rock music. The question is, how has the this culture of alienation within heavy metal changed with as a result of these new fanbases, or has it changed at all?
While heavy metal is, ironically enough, a music originally produced and avidly listened to by outcasts, it has become equally as exclusive of a subculture. Metal fans and media cast out other fans and bands alike for all sorts of social descrepancies within the metal subculture spectrum. These "social descrepancies" generally deal with either a fan "pretending" to like metal a band radically changing their sound to gain mainstream acceptance. Both of these cases deal with a perceived lack of authenticity as seen from a general perspective within the heavy metal subculture. Whereas these "discrepant" fans are largely viewed as "poseurs", the "discrepant" bands are generally viewed as playing "false metal" which is often accompanied by the phrase, "Death to false metal".
Author of All Known Metal Bands, Dan Nelson, has stated that “[The] phrase ‘Death to false metal’... represents the worst of metal culture. The idea that culture should somehow be kept pure is oxymoronic. Culture thrives and advances only through cross-pollination and corruption and misuse. The most prolific and usually boring subgenre of metal (black metal) is a testament to what happens when you stick to the formula. Long Live False Metal!” (www.invisibleoranges.com). Although one can certainly agree that a subculture, and especially a music subculture, thrives through "cross-pollination", there is also a certain extent to which certain social norms must be adhered to for a culture to thrive as well. Arguably, it is this very conflict between the heavy metal purists and free-thinkers that has allowed heavy metal to progress while still retaining some of its most basic values. But I digress.

This cross-pollination, as described earlier, has led to a sort of liberalization of metal, especially in recent years. What bands are allowed to do (not only with music) has expanded substantially in the post-grunge years. One way it has cross-pollinated recently is by gaining notice by the hipster subculture.
Despite the disgust that most metalheads (including me) have for hipsters, I would argue that their interest in metal has served to further expand metal's audiences and creativity (even while some hipsters' interest in metal is merely ironic or to gain more elitist street cred). None can deny that hipsters come from just as stringent of a culture of alienation which is why I think this particular cross-pollination is logical. On the other side of it "[hipsterism], in general, flies directly in the face of much that is Metal: dedication, the battle of Life & Death, and a lack of irony" (http://www.bigtakeover.com/essays/die-hipster-metal-die). That is, I think, where the disdain for hipsters and hipster culture comes from within the metal scene.
One thing that has defined hipster/indie music in recent years has been it's unabashed experimentation with music forms that are either disdained or largely unknown to the majority of the population. I've heard hipster/indie bands play with flamenco, Caribbean, and African drumming. I think it is this creative freedom to interrogate other forms of music within an already established type of music that has been/is being brought to metal.
Being a fan of some weirder, more experimental metal, I fully embrace new ideas introduced into heavy metal's veins. However, I will forever scoff at a hipster showing their face at a metal show. Such is the conflict. Metal, like everything else, goes in cycles. It has seen a rebirth in every aspect in the last few years. Call me Nostradamus, but metal will eventually fall under the radar again and then we can separate the faithful from the "poseurs". But for now, enjoy the new creative peak that metal has reached, and when you destroy that fucking hipster in the pit, just look him with your bloodthirsty eyes and think, "Thanks."

- Judge Dredd