Gender: Female
Status: Single
Age: 81
Sign: Scorpio
Country: US
Signup Date: 5/10/2008
|
|
|
|
Thursday, December 10, 2009
|
Current mood:  handsome
Category: Music
~Courtesy of Unfashionable Creatures By Marisa Connelly 2009
 ..
Ben Falgoust will talk to you about anything. Seriously. We had already been chatting about horror movies for almost ten minutes before I even turned my voice recorder on. And as much as I tried to focus on my prepared questions, the conversation ended up all over the place. We were like two old ladies at Sunday brunch- in a brutal, blackened death metal, blasphemy and Satanism kind of way. But we did manage to talk about him a little bit, and Goatwhore's f*cking killer new album Carving Out the Eyes of God.
Like I said, this begins with a talking about horror flicks....
Ben Falgoust: Life is weird, man! I think women like to go to horror movies because they like the fear, and they like in a different way. I think for many different things, actually. Like, four girls will go to a horror movie together because they like to cling to each other, and be like, “Ahhhh!” Where a dude will show up by himself.
Unfashionable Creatures: Girls don't cling to each other, they cling to their boyfriends. Ben: Oh, they are, but you said more girls are going to horror movies than the guys. What if a group of girls go? I went and saw 'The Grudge' in the theater, and it was funny at one point, there was a girl sitting next to me. I didn't know her or anything, but I looked at her and it was funny because she was so f*cking scared!
UC: Of 'The Grudge'? It was a good movie, but clicking doesn't really scare me. Yeah! It was fucking funny! I like the Japanese version better, though. I'm a big fan of older stuff, like John Carpenter's 'The Thing'. Amazing movie, still today! There's supposed to be another version coming up, I hate when they re-make good stuff. They f*ck it up, they really do. But it's supposed to be a prequel, like when the whole Norwegian team got infected by the alien. And then it's like the beginning of the other one, before it came to the American camp. It's supposed to show what happened to the whole Norwegian team when they found the alien in ice and all that shit. Whatever, I still like the first one. And I love Bruce Campbell, he's amazing! I like 'The Howling', that's one of the best movies ever.
Have you ever seen 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'? Yeah yeah! The older ones are f*cking cool, they have a lot of cool concepts.
And I have 'Bloodbath at the House of Death' too! Yeah! It's awesome shit! But the werewolf movies are the best, and 'Halloween' and 'American Werewolf in London'!
For sure! Have you ever been to Rock and Shock? It sounds familiar.
It's in Worcester, MA. It's a three day horror movie convention with three nights of metal concerts. I've never been to a horror movie convention. I saw GWAR at a tattoo convention as a kid. But I've heard of it. [laughs] Are we going to start the interview now?
Alright, interview! Name and Occupation. Ben Falgoust. At home I work at a frame shop, on the road I'm the vocalist of Goatwhore.
What does Carving Out the Eyes of God mean? Um, it's kind of deep, actually. Well, not really too deep, it's not what people think. It's the basic idea that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh he rested. Well, I was reading some Clive Barker stuff and this short story thing he had. [In the story] on the seventh day, [God] didn't rest, he kept creating. And out of his haze and exhaustion from creating everything in the first six days, he created everything that was evil and sinister and vile in the world. And that [proposes] that God is basically flawed. I mean, we are flawed, why isn't he flawed as well? I mean, there's the idea that we are created in the image of God, and if we have flaws, where did they come from? Pretty much him, in a sense. And if you google things like the anger of God, or the hatred of God, google stories about God, and at point there's such anger and hatred. It shows that he is just like everyone else. So why does everybody put him above [us], when he is just as evil? But everybody sinks to it because they are so scared of death and what's going to happen in the afterlife. So the whole idea of Carving Out the Eyes of God, the idea is a little more abstract in a sense, because it is basically explaining the idea of him creating both good and evil, there's validity on both ends. Even though something is evil and wicked, there's validity because he created it.
It kind of reminds me of polytheistic religions, because none of the gods were absolute, they all had flaws. Unlike Christianity where the one and only God is considered perfect. Well ,the problem is that there were already structures of ideas before Christianity and Catholicism. Basically, if you look into their structures, Christianity and Catholicism stole from those ideas, and just changed the ideas into one God that was all of everything. But they failed to rectify the situation of him creating, at some point, we are involved in the creation and we are flawed already. So, I mean I know they have the little story about Adam and Eve, and she ate the apple, and Adam, the rib of man, creating woman and all that shit.
Yeah, just like the story of Prometheus bringing fire and enlightenment to mankind. Humans worshipped him, although he was punished by the gods. Well, in Satanism, it's like, Satan is the rebellion angel, the one that goes against everything.
Yeah, and his image is stolen from Bacchus and Pan, with the goat legs and everything. Yeah, it's just the evolution of it.
Yeah, and Eve is kind of like a goddess of enlightenment. But because Christianity is so misogynistic, she was vilified instead of praised. Well, if you look at Sumerian stuff, and Inanna, she was a female god. She was praised, but [early Christians] just flipped everything, and used it to their own benefit. To control the masses. I mean, a lot of my stuff if pretty much spawned by a hatred towards organized religion. And actually to see that man, and women, still follow the structure of organized religion, and everything it's caused, all the problems its caused, all the wars it's caused.
Yeah! Religion has caused more wars in history than anything else. But it's just crazy, man-kind is always progressing to move forward, but every time it moves forward a step, it moves back five. Because it never wants to step away from something and move. There's people that fear death, and I think that's the main issue is that people fear death, and the ability to worry about what's going to go on now, rather than what's going to go on after they die.
Do you fear death? No.
What do you think happens when you die? I'm not really worried about it, I'm worried about what needs to happen right now. And I think that's the issue with people, they are so worried about what's going to happen later that every Sunday they all cram into a little f*cking building and do what they have to do to and repent sins because they're worried about what's going to happen later on. They don't worry about what needs to happen right now. It's irrelevant, really. It truly is. It's just a basic question that mankind has always had in their heads since the dawn of time. “Well, what happens after this?” Who cares! Because you can't do anything about it really. You just got to live your life and do what you got to do each day. And from there, just see what happens.
So what do you think is the meaning of life? If it's not religion? To be satisfied and content and happy with what you want to do. You go after things that you want to do, you don't let anyone stop you or try to stand in your way. You're not always going to succeed, and you will fail at times, but that's the structure of learning in life. Mistakes teach you a lot of stuff. Failure, success, those kinds of things.
 ..
You've said in recent interviews that this album is more rock and roll. Do you find that harder to do than just playing fast as hell all the time? Having more groove? We call it “Black and Roll”. And no, I just think it's two different feelings, and two different structures. If anything, it's more fun to play the Black and Roll element. It symbolizes things like AC/DC, Motörhead, Judas Priest- the actual fun in metal. You go to a rock concert, and you wake up the next day like, “Damn! That was fun! That was an awesome show!” Not just “That guitar player was incredible, he played all these arpeggios.” It's not like a math contest really. It's about having a good time, being able to go to the show and leaving all your troubles at home and have a good f*cking time. I mean, we like fast stuff, we like speed, but I think we just touched a little bit more, on the new record, with the element of Black and Roll than before because it's so rooted in us. From the earlier days of Celtic Frost and Venom and Bathory and Motörhead and Discharge and Doom, and there's so many f*cking bands out there, you can just run them off. So, um, yeah! [laughs] I think it loses people a lot of times. When someone asks you about a band, if it's a band that actually wrote a riff that's memorable, you remember that 10 years from now. If they wrote something techy, they just played some crazy shit, but you can never hum out the riff. But you remember... something that's simple and just has a roll to it. Like poppy shit that's on the radio and people get all hooked on it. It's the hook, in metal That's what the whole new record is written like. We had songs that we just threw away. We wrote the whole thing, and then when we were practicing we were like, something doesn't feel right. So we either tore it apart and just took pieces from it, or threw the whole f*cking thing away. So a lot of the songs, pretty much all of the songs on the new record were a feeling based thing. Like, yeah, that feels good. And I'll admit that sometimes we get in the studio and we like a song, but we're not really sure on it, but once you record it and get the vocal in, it changes the whole song, and it brings it into a different realm. So sometimes we might be jumping the gun by throwing something completely away, but we're pretty finicky about it. We don't like to be pushed into “Oh just hurry up and write a bunch of stuff!” We won't do that. We'll spend a longer time, which might be a detriment to us, but we want it the way we want it to be. Everybody likes to feel good. Or touch base with some kind of emotion. You know you have in every era a band that makes an impression. Like Nirvana, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd. You had Nirvana, but since then you haven't had a band that had an impact like that. I love all other stuff too.
Yeah, I love the blues too. It depends, I'm moody. Certain bands at certain times. Everything has it's own little thing or it's own little touch that gets you through a day, or a week, or a month.
Do you think there's a trend in black metal to have more rock and roll influences and sounds? Or is it just you guys doing Black and Roll? No, it's not a trend, really. Not yet, at least, hopefully. Well, Satyricon does it a little, lately. And Darkthrone has been doing it for a while. Darkthrone had it to where they were always this ferocious black metal thing, they started adding in this rock and roll/punk elements. So, it seemed like Darkthrone added it in to their black metal. They made it a little more prettier and dirtier, and more of that attitude to it, rather than being this perfected, symphonic wicked thing. They took it to a different direction. To me, it's not fully a trend yet, I see it evolving into it if it fell into the right hands. It has a possibility, becoming.
OK, so why do you think fans separate metal into a myriad of sub-genres? I think it's a social thing, man. Because when I grew up, I listened to thrash metal, death metal, hardcore, punk. A bunch of different variant of things. But now, you have your death metal kids, and they won't go to a thrash metal show. They won't go to this kind of metal show, but they'll go to a death metal show. But it's just like with us, we get tagged black metal, but I think we have a little bit more to offer than just black metal. And there's a lot of people that are deterred by that tag because they think of Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth immediately. And they don't think of traditional bands like Celtic Frost or Venom or Bathory. So, from an immediate perspective, we could shun people until they actually got to see us and see what we have to offer, and then be like, “Oh, I though this band was totally like a black metal band like Dimmu Borgir or something.” And it kind of sucks because when people start placing things into brackets, it starts breaking it. To me, I listen to all kinds, and it's all just extreme music. I like all of it, I don't bracket it up. Everyone's busy fighting to be the coolest, that's the problem. I mean, I've been to a show and I'm like, “Man! I don't know anybody here.” But it's no big deal, but it's funny because people like to separate, but sometimes it's like a social thing. Like, “Well these bands are hip right now.” So it's a social endeavor, and it's a shame because all these bands work really hard and it sucks that they are put into these categories, and some of them offer similar things but you don't want to be a part of it because your group of friends don't like that, or whatever. It's kind of silly at times.
Sammy Duet [guitarist] said that A Haunting Curse might have went over fans heads, can you elaborate on that? I don't know. I guess maybe, maybe not. I think sometimes he thinks we did a little too much speed oriented stuff on there, but it wasn't really that technical or anything. I really like the record, I like how things came out on it. It's got some good feeling parts to it, but, if it had the guitar sound that's on the new record, it would be awesome! I like guitars loud in the mix. I think there's a lot of bands, even huge bands, no offense to Lamb of God or Slipknot, but it's mostly drums and vocals up in the front, and the guitars kind of sit back. And I like traditional records like Metallica's Ride The Lightening or Slayer's Reign In Blood. The guitars are ripping through. That's what metal is! That's why it was metal, because of the metallic guitar tone. So why are you trying to push them back? It's easy to keep them in there, and still hear everything else. Let them have their attack and sound like chainsaws ripping through your speakers! I just don't understand it, and that's what we wanted on the new record- to have the guitars ripping through, which they do. Erik Rutan did an amazing job with it. Totally like, its funny because he can take that record and go around to all these big producers and be like, “See! It can be done! You can bring the guitars up without sacrificing the sound of everything else!” I just think sometimes people get in this point, the big producers are like, “It has to be this way.” It's a shame that the band doesn't just go, “NO! That's not how it's supposed to be!” And I think sometimes you don't even have to go to the big producers. Nowadays, I think it's less of an interest with younger fans. They don't give a f*ck really, who the f*ck you went and did. Maybe 10 years ago they cared which producer you recorded with. Now they don't even care that much. I don't think they have much of an interest in it like they once did. And there's so many more bands nowadays, you're trying to keep track of all these bands. The last thing you want to do is keep track of all these bands, all these producers, all these recording studios. You just want to follow the bands and enjoy the music.
Yeah, but I think that the [music industry] is the same size as always, but instead of having 15 mega huge bands selling out sport stadiums, you have 150 bands selling out smaller clubs because of the internet and current culture. Yeah. And the thing about it is that they're not even doing it for years. They're popular for like, six months to a year. And you're fighting for it so much, if you're not consecutively following through, you're obsolete. It's kind of weird, but I don't try to dig into it so much, because after a while you see how the industry runs and some of the crap in it, and it kind of pushes you away and makes you want to ignore all that stuff and have a good time doing what you want to do, because you don't want to ruin everything you've worked hard for.
What is a goat whore? [laughs] I don't know, what is it? It's pretty much self explanatory, a female that rapes goats. It could be a male. But I want pygmy goats! That would be cool!
What is one guilty pleasure that you indulge in? It used to be soda, but I gave it up. Candy! I love candy! Spree, and dots. Um, I like some of AFI stuff. [laughs] Their early stuff, because its like punk stuff.
It's OK, I admit to liking Justin Timberlake. I don't like him so much. Um, I love Scarlett Johansson, but I think everybody loves her.
I love her husband Ryan Reynolds. If I ever met him in real life I would probably rape him. [laughs] Well, now that you've said it in an interview, he will leave her for you. That would be cool! Do that because then that leaves her free for me! Um, I sing in the shower, not in the car really. I crank it too loud to hear anything. I don't really have any weird things except for the AFI thing.
Info:
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
|
Category: Music
 | Currently listening:
God Is I
By Merauder
Release date: 2009-08-11 |
|
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Friday, October 23, 2009
|
Current mood:  jedi
Category: Music
ARKAEA – YEARS IN THE DARKNESS
by: Oswald's Ghost
Rating: 4 (Don’t need no instructions to know how to rock!)
I’ve been sitting here asking myself, ‘How can I do this review without any mention of Fear Factory?’ And the answer is that I simply cannot. ARKAEA is the collaborative effort of ‘former’ Fear Factory members, Christian Olde Wolbers (guitars) and Raymond Herrera (drums), as well as current Threat Signal band members Jon Howard (vocals) and Pat Kavanagh (bass).
From the first second of ARKAEA’s debut album, one can instantly hear that the two dudes from Fear Factory were writing most, if not all, of the album’s material. The failsafe there is that you cannot really start the usual shit-slinging about Band-A ripping off Band-B’s sound. They are within their right to do whatever their brutal hearts’ desire inspires them to do. That being said, there’s always going to be the internal Fear Factory related shit-slinging, but that’s categorically different than challenging a group of unknowns of attempting to con the ears of the listener. But I digress…
“Years in the Darkness” is a more than solid debut effort no matter how you square it. Wolbers, Kavanagh, and Herrera deliver the expected dose of synchronization between their riffs and kicks, but they do not stay with that formula throughout. And when they do not keep to their ‘roots,’ some listeners might find it hard to swallow…if they’re just looking for another Fear Factory record. In all fairness to the Fear Factory alumni, any musical passages that differ from what we’ve come to expect from them based on their previous efforts, should not be deemed as ‘bad’ simply because it’s not the status quo. There is nothing like a little musical growth to upset the stomachs of the ‘Cyberwasters.’ (Ha! I made a funny.) Jon Howard’s vocals on the record are definitely what push this album over the edge and stop it from being another Fear Factory lineup. His screaming style is crisp, and more than decipherable. The only downside to being understandable is that lyrical content becomes more of a necessity. I’m not saying I have any issue with the lyrical content, but sometimes hooks can be lost when you can’t find a direct personal connection to the words you feel compelled to sing (or scream) along with. Mr. Howard’s clean pipes are far more impressive than his screaming abilities, and that’s saying something. I have no doubt that any first time listener lacking knowledge of the band will immediately ask if Chester Bennington from Linkin Park has a new project out. If Mr. Bennington was placed in the top 50 metal vocalists of all time in a certain magazine’s polls, does that vicariously place Jon Howard in the top 50?
Should this debut be held to a higher standard as it’s not any member’s actual debut…perhaps it should. But if you’d like to know why I am not doing so, listen to ‘Break the Silence,’ ‘Rise Today,’ and ‘Away from the Sun.’ When more people listen to those tracks, Arkaea will start getting the attention they deserve.
Rating System:
1 - “Make way for alcoholism.” 2 - “Whoever’s toe that is, I appreciate the effort, but you can stop now.” 3 - “Okay sure, I’ll take this Pass/Fail.” 4 - “Don’t need no instructions to know how to rock!” 5 - “Make way for awesome!”
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Monday, October 19, 2009
|
Current mood: chipper
Category: Music
“THE TREACHERY, THE BRUTALITY!” INTERVIEW WITH BRENDON SMALL OF METALOCALYPSE/DETHKLOK
 ..
October 9, 2009
by Marisa Connelly courtesy of Sick Drummer Magazine
Attaining huge mainstream success with a death metal band is nearly impossible, yet Brendon Small has done it with a band that kinda sorta doesn't actually exist. For Dethklok, (currently on tour with Mastodon, Converge and High On Fire) real life has now imitated their on screen success. Brendon chatted on the phone with me one recent afternoon about the greatest selling death metal band of all time, and about the art of balancing the “band” with the show created for them. He also explained a lot about what it takes to write a hit cartoon series, and the future of Metalocalypse.
Do initial ideas for the show come naturally to you? Are you always thinking up goofy shit or ways to kill people? Or do you really have to spend time brainstorming? To be honest, every once in a while an idea comes easily. The show is not so easy to write. And I've actually brought in writers for the third season to help write and it was really tough for them too. It's really tricky to manhandle stuff. But there's certain stuff our show does and there's certain stuff our show doesn't do. We experimented with some weird stuff at the top of the whole series where we'd awaken trolls and all that stuff. But we realized that if we continued doing stuff like that the show's longevity will be compromised. And I think you end up getting diminishing returns when you have zero stakes in the world where anything can happen. We want to make sure it's still based on some sort of exaggerated reality. So, yeah, I say no to more things than I say yes to. We scrutinized everything pretty hard, especially in this third season where a little more concentration is on story because we're doing a half hour now. So there's a little bit more scrutiny going on- if it plays funny than it works, and if it continues being funny than we keep it. If it's boring than we cut it, and sometimes we cut funny stuff to make room for other funny stuff. But nothing is easy. My staff of people will tell you that. They've been more exhausted this year than any other year. This third season is very hard, but it's up and running. And it's been worth the treachery, the brutality. But this third season I think is going to be the best season so far.
Cool! But I admit I'm very jealous of you that you have a staff of writers. I wish I had that! Yeah, I did, but I still end up writing most of it myself. And I'm still writing stuff. If for some reason I get duped into doing another season of this show, basically...I had like, a couple days with writers. I didn't have a full blown staff sitting there, writing stuff all day long. I'd like to change that should I continue this thing.
OK, so besides having 30 minute episodes, what's going to be different in the new season of Metalocalypse? Well the thing is, it's more a story thing. I'm moving this show towards a place that I've always been moving it towards, incrementally. When either between me or the network decides to end the show, I know where the show is ending. And what I'd say is that, TV is ultimately about how strong your characters are. I don't think people give that much a shit about the story at the end of the day. I think they want to hang out with these people every week. I mean, there are some fun things that will happen that people will remember, but ultimately if your characters are really up and running and have developed their personalities, then you don't really have any worries. You still have to have them do shit every week that's fun to do. But in my opinion, personally, I watch a lot of TV and I think a lot of characters are very weak. And if our characters are ridiculous celebrities that can hardly open doors or whatever, we still can give them their own sets of layers, likes and dislikes, and things that make them their own people. Things they would and wouldn't do and all that stuff, so ultimately my concentration for season three is continuing on furthering character stuff. Within that there's a bunch of just dopey stupid shit that has nothing to do with character, it's just all stupid. And within that also is a lot of story to service because we left the second season pretty dark and precarious. The first episode deals a lot with that.
So, speaking of characters, I have yet to see a strong female protagonist in Metalocalypse. I've seen antagonists, or some females that are maybe in a couple episodes, but they're not a main character. So is there any reason why there hasn't been a female protagonist? I don't know. Yeah, there isn't, really. It's strange when you're sitting on a tour bus with eight dudes that smell horrible, that's kind of all I've seen really, so far. You got a good idea though. There's no reason why there's not. It certainly isn't an anti-female show. But in this world of metal, thus far, the strong characters have all been dudes.
Well, metal in real life can be very misogynistic. Yeah, it's dude-driven, and it doesn't always need to be. And rock doesn't need to be, either. Some of the coolest musicians out there have been girls, too. From Debbie Harry to whoever.
For sure! So, Dethalbum II debuted at #15 on the Billboard charts. Awesome! How successful do you think Dethklok would be if it was just a band, and not attached to a cartoon? Um, probably not successful at all. I don't know. I mean, from the dawn of musical history people needed a gimmick to sell records, you know? From The Monkees to The Archies to KISS, all that stuff. And this is also a gimmick. I'll be the first to tell you that without a TV show, we wouldn't be anything. I think there's definitely... every record needs to stand on it's own, the TV show needs to stand on it's own. And to have any success it's all luck at this point. I don't necessarily do the music for anyone else but myself. I don't really consider what people will think of it. I think about how much I like it, and if I like it enough, it goes on the record. If I don't like it, I throw it back in the trash and maybe re-work it later or abandon it completely. The TV show is something I have to think about the audience for. Because I have to go, “Alright, if I have them all go to this store, what is the reason?” I have to tell the audience the reason and here are the jokes. You have to explain everything to the audience. I obsess over a lot of stuff just to make sure it's totally understood. When you're writing a script, it ends up being kind of boring and meticulous because it's all about clarity, you know? It's really shitty even though it's in an absurd stupid death metal world, it ends up being about clarity. On the music side, I don't care if people understand it. In my mind when I hear music, there's an objectivity to it. When I'm writing scripts, there isn't, you know? And I can write a riff to a click track that makes a lot of sense and I understand the energy to it, and where it's going and how it's changing. But in a script, I still have to read it in front of a group of people like, “Is this f*cking funny? Or am I out of my mind?” And that's what every stand-up comic is doing when they go on stage with new material, they're saying, “Am I f*cking crazy? Is this funny? No one's laughing?” And there's your answer.
 ..
I heard that you first went in to stand-up comedy to help you overcome stage fright? Is that true? It was, but also I was driven to the world of comedy. I guess with that it really served two purposes. I definitely didn't want to live life as a person with any kind of social neurosis, and I figured the best way to overcome that was to force myself into the most difficult position possible, which was doing stand-up in front of strangers.
Was writing the second album any different from the first? Did you write full songs this time, or write just the parts for the episodes initially, and then create that into an album? There's a lot of new stuff that didn't happen in the songs that happened on the record. So I basically wanted to keep stuff just fresh for myself. I wanted to have these B or C or D sections that didn't occur in the song whatsoever. And then , you know, between doing a record with 21 songs-over an hour and a half worth of material- you learn how to do things better and you have a natural... you've been around the block once and you know how to get to things quicker. I've been recording so much for the show, I'll pay a little more attention to making sure I played it better on the record. I want to make sure I factor in that amount of time. For the show, it's like, “Alright, that's good enough. They get the idea.”
I can't wait to see you in in Albany in a few weeks, how much of the new album are you playing live versus older stuff? The thing is, it's funny. At the end of the day you're at the mercy of your time, budget, and resources. I wanted to do a lot of stuff from the old record because it's really fun to play live, and some of it just has a really great live tempo. But I also wanted to bring in some of the super fast sh*t from the new record because our live show is a good medium-fast tempo from the last one, and I wanted to see how much faster we could make the live show, so I brought in some of the faster songs. And we also needed to animate it, and you need budgets for all that stuff. So, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to make these things happen, so I'm begging people for money, and I'm only getting so much. But I got a good amount, so we have five new songs from the new record. And then some of the favorites from the first record, so I'm really happy with the pacing and the tone of this live show.
OK, cool! So, how did you pick your live band? I actually just picked what I thought were the best musicians that I knew, or had heard of, ever. That's why they're there. Gene Hoglan is obviously a legendary drummer. Mike Keneally is one of the most amazing lead guitarists and one of the most creative people, and has an amazing history. Bryan Beller is the same. I consider them to be super-musicians. They can do anything anytime any place. They dwarf me musically. Which I think is important to be around people that are much better than you, rather than the other way around. I don't want to be working, driving a band like, “No! This is where it's supposed to happen!” I look to them like, “How does the song that I wrote go?” So, that's how it happens.
Any news on the new video game, Metalocalypse: Dethgame? No, it's kind of in a strange place right now, and I can't really report anything. It was supposed to come out, and it didn't, and that's all I know. I'll have to talk to PR about that, to know what I can or can't say. But if it comes out, it will be worth it! That's all I have to say.
Because you're obviously a pretty busy guy, is touring a sort of break for you? Do you get to just focus on the tour? Or is more of a (for lack of a better term) clusterf*ck? It's more of a clusterf*ck. First of all, you're just exhausted from traveling, city to city, it just makes you tired. Secondly, I have more stuff to write. I have two episodes to finish, soon! And I have more music to write. And I'm downloading animatics and looking at animations constantly. I'm out of the frying pan and into the fire. And the second I finish the tour I'm walking right back into the studio and getting a cup of coffee and sitting down with everybody and getting right back to work. This thing is just never going to end!
Haha! Well, thank you very very much for taking some time today to talk with me. Can't wait to see the show! Thank you! I'll see you in Albany. It will be fun!
Info: check out upcoming tour dates near you!
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Friday, October 09, 2009
|
Current mood: exotic
Category: Music
IN WHICH I ASKED NERGAL AND ORION OF BEHEMOTH A LOT OF STUPID QUESTIONS
by Marisa Connelly
On a rainy and miserable day during the Rockstar Mayhem Fest, I had the pleasure of interviewing Behemoth, although I suspect the pleasure was mostly mine. Nergal and Orion are the most reluctant and private musicians I've encountered in metal. Not only were they tired and hungover, they were clearly less than ecstatic about dealing with yet another nosy journalist.
Sensing this, I tried everything I could to get them to relax and open up. I was more friendly and bubbly than usual, I promised them that I wouldn't ask any stupid questions, and that I would try to make things as quick and painless as possible. They, in turn, picked on me throughout the entire conversation. Awesome!
Although some of my more personal questions went completely unanswered, I can't blame them at all considering how much bullsh*t the Polish media says about them. Essentially, I consider this interview to be a work in progress- I will see them again, and hopefully they will have their guard down a little bit more.
But I still had a great time, and am grateful for their patience and overall awesomeness. Nergal has an uncommonly sharp wit and a sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor. Orion just exudes this mysterious quiet coolness all the time. And they both really enjoyed making fun of me, so who am I to deny that to anyone? This shall be continued...
Name and Occupation? Nergal: Nergal, and I do guitars and vocals. Orion: I'm Orion, I play bass.
OK, this is the only stupid question I have: plug the new album. Nergal: That last one was already stupid, there's more?
The only reason I ask 'name and occupation' is because I have over 30 interviews in my voice recorder, so when I transcribe them, I know who it is immediately. Nergal: Oh, OK. So we don't count that as a question?
No. Nergal: OK, cool. So one non-question and one stupid question [so far]?
Yes. Nergal: OK, first stupid question.
Plug in the new album. Nergal: Which is what?
Evangelion. Nergal: OK, it's our ninth record, um...[long pause] is this going on the radio?
No, written. Nergal: Oh, because I already sound like a retard. [To Orion] You speak you f*ck! [laughs] Orion: [replies in Polish]
This is the easiest question of the entire interview, come on! Nergal: We're going to put out the strongest record, that's it. It's the f*cking ultimate Behemoth album. The ninth one. It's coming out on Metal Blade [as of press time]. It's got nine songs, a very diverse record. It's produced by Colin Richardson, it sounds awesome, you'll enjoy it, that's it. Good?
Good, yes. Good plug in. Orion: I believe it's the best thing we've ever done, I can't wait for it to come out! Nergal: I believe actually that no band can top it. [laughs] Orion: I don't believe that.
OK, so Orion, when you're onstage, is it more about putting on a good show, or playing well? Orion: It's both, and that's the way it's supposed to be, I hope. So we are trying to look good, to do proper stage show. But at the same time we bring a lot of attention to playing well. We're trying to keep up with what we do and playing well.
How many notes do you think you miss a night? Orion: Tonight? Nergal: I counted three. [laughs] But seriously, it's all about both, but only the first one works out.
Huh? Nergal: You asked two things, right? Is it about performance, the show, or good playing. So yeah, he was right, it's all about both, and the first one works out. Orion: So he said I missed three notes, because all together I had to do about eight today. Yeah, one string thing.
[Laughing] I actually got the idea for that question from Derek Boyer (Suffocation) from advice you gave to him. Orion: I gave Derek advice?
Yes you did. He was giving advice to Stephan Fimmers (Necrophagist) about playing well versus playing the show and playing to the crowd. Like, when you have a big note, you stretch your guitar out and f*cking hit that sh*t! Orion: That's what I am doing.
Exactly. Even if it doesn't sound perfect, it looks good. The crowd loves it. Orion: The Necrophagist guys are doing more notes within one song than we do within the whole show.
[Laughing] Yes they do! Nergal: They are doing more notes in one song than I do during my life!
[Laughing hysterically] Nergal: You know why we put so much stuff around us?
Because it makes you look cool? Nergal: No, we just want people to be distracted from how we play. So they don't really watch our guitar necks! [laughing]
[To Nergal] OK, so you said the video for “Ov Fire and the Void” is the most expressive and controversial one that you've done to date. How so? Nergal: It's very artistic. It's a very smart story line there. I don't know, it's just, the playing is awesome on this one from what I've seen. I haven't really seen the first cut yet [as of press time], but from what I've seen from when we were shooting it was very artistic. A lot of expression. So that's my guess. And what was the other thing that you said?
Controversial. [note from author: “Ov Fire and the Void” is currently banned from Youtube.] Nergal: Well, it looks like whatever we do is going to be controversial anyways, so... now I'm trying to memorize what the video is about. Orion: To give you a taste of what the controversy is about, in the last scene we are ripping an angel to pieces. That's going to be controversial, for sure. Nergal: We f*cked it first. [laughs]
You've been documenting every step of the album process, as well as the video shoots, you have a brand new DVD coming out. Was this an idea the label had? Or yours? Nergal: Yeah, we come up with our own ideas, pretty much. It's always like, we like to do the stuff we see in our favorite bands. If any of our favorite bands have that stuff, we have to do it. That's why we pay so much attention to video journals and giving people an inside look. What it looks like from behind the stage or in the studio. I think it's cool. I like watching it, I'm a fan of it myself, you know? So, I think it's cool. It's fun doing it, it's fun watching it, it's fun reading people's opinions about it. That's the most fun.
So you go on Blabbermouth.net? Nergal: Yeah, sure!
And read what people say about you? Nergal: F*ck yeah! I love it! Orion: They just all want to see that. It's not our idea to come up with all these video things from the studio or recording of the album. People want to see how does that look from behind. We just do it, we're exploring the idea, trying to add as many of our own details to it as possible. They seem to enjoy it, they seem interested, they're commenting, they're watching it. That's why we do it, as easy as it is. Nergal: It's all about existing on different territories, different levels, you know what I mean? It's not just music, it's not just a CD, it's everything else around it. It's like yet another dimension that people can communicate with us. They don't need to guess what was happening in the studio, they just go online and see us in private uniforms [clothing], how we look like in the daylight. And we just work on the sh*t, it's just cool. I would love to see that in my favorite bands.
Which kind of leads into my next question. Why are you showing yourselves more publicly without corpse paint and gear? Nergal: Because there's no way we can escape from it, you know? Maybe like today, if we have an idea that we can just keep it more... I don't know. It's, Jesus! I mean, even Slipknot cannot do it. It's just, like everyone knows what we look like. We've been, there's no way to escape from it, there's no way to keep the mystery anymore. When everyone has a phone and they can take pictures and film stuff, you just can't escape so why should we care?
So you're not going to be like KISS prior to the Animalize album? Nergal: Eh, whatever. Stage is stage, off stage is off stage. Pfft!
People are people. Nergal: Exactly. Orion: We are just living in different times now. Everything goes online, everything goes into your privacy. There's no point to go to sleep in corpse paint and spikes.
You're on a lot of magazine covers right now, seem to be all over the place. Nergal: Yeah, we blackmailed the editors if they didn't put us on the cover we were going to [gestures slicing his throat.]
Nice! Oh, wait, sh*t! What does that mean if I don't put you on the cover of mine? Nergal: Bad idea!
I put up a good fight, just saying! Orion: You fight with him, you fight with me.
I'll take both of you at the same time. Nergal: Wow.
I don't care! F*ck! [laughing. At this point the crowd erupted as Slayer took the stage, we all got noticeably antsy to go watch]
Apart from the interviews, except this one because this one is awesome... Nergal: It is?
Funny. So apart from interviews and covers and pictures, who are you? Nergal: Ourselves. Orion: They're not supposed to look at that, they're looking at what they're supposed to, right? What we give them to look at and that's all they know. We have our own privacy that we don't really want to share with anybody. Nergal: Are you asking like, who we are? Umm, I've been trying to find out for 32 years now and I still don't know. What people see is the covers of the magazines, everything is so shiny, so nice, so glamour. And they don't see that hard work that's behind it. It's so easy for people to judge, you know what I mean? And they don't give a f*ck. There's a lot of hard work behind it.
What changes within you when you put on the corpse paint and armor? Nergal: I walk differently, I have a deeper voice tone. I look differently, I become a predator.
Do you feel more exposed and vulnerable in corpse paint and gear, or dressed normally? Nergal: Of course in my uniform [street clothes]. Orion: Hard question. It's not the day for that, these questions are too hard! [laughs] I think I am more vulnerable and exposed when I'm off [stage]. Corpse paint is an armor, a mask. People can't see through it. Without it I'm just a person.
Gotcha! Well, thank you very much, let's go watch Slayer! Nergal: Thank you. Orion: Thank you.
Info:
www.behemoth.pl
www.myspace.com/behemoth
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, August 13, 2009
|
Category: Music
Click the poster for more details! Contest ends September 30th!
 | Currently listening:
Kill
By Cannibal Corpse
Release date: 2006-03-21 |
|
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
|
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Music
CLICK ON THE COVER TO READ THE AUGUST 2009 ISSUE OUT NOW!!!
UpstateLIVE Music Guide - distributed throughout NYS has gotten too large and had to branch off it's hard rock/metal/goth/core section into it's own magazine. The 1st issue of Upstate Metal - online and 5000 in print will be launched August 09.
In order to make the mag as large as we need it to be for all the content we have (CD reviews, interviews, concert reviews, photos, mystery writers from famous bands, and more) [Our feature article this month is a 3 page Cannibal Corpse interview]) we need the help of target audiences.
Rates are very low. If you place an ad, we will also put your banner ad on our websites (official, myspace, facebook). Just reply to Kim or Marisa at upstatemetal@gmail.com and we will send you more details/ad rates/dimensions/payment info. We appreciate your time! Tell a friend. Thank you!!!
CHECK OUT WWW.UPSTATEMETAL.NET
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, April 30, 2009
|
Category: Music
“LOVE
YOUR OWN LIFE AND HATE EVERYBODY ELSE'S”
INTERVIEW
WITH VINCENT BENNETT OF THE ACACIA STRAIN
March 8,
2009
by Marisa
Connelly
WHO ARE
YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
My
name is Vincent Bennett and I am the vocalist for The Acacia Strain.
WHAT IS
YOUR NEWEST ALBUM “CONTINENT”
ABOUT?
Basically it is about the destruction of the entire
human race and one person's survival from that.
SO
THEMES OF NIHILISM?
Yeah.
OK.
SO, THE LYRICS OF “THE COMBINE” PAINT A POST-WAR APOCALYPTIC
LANDSCAPE, BEREFT OF HUMAN LIFE. A COMBINE, THE ACTUAL MACHINE, HAS
BEEN USED IN LITERATURE AND VIDEO GAMES TO REPRESENT THE MECHANISTIC
WAY OF MANIPULATING AND PROCESSING HUMANS, SUBTLE EMASCULATION, OR AS
MICHEL FOUCAULT DESCRIBED- A SUBTLE, INVISIBLE OPPRESSION. KEEPING
THIS IN MIND, HOW DOES THE TITLE OF THE SONG CORRELATE WITH IT'S
LYRICS?
Basically, when I titled most of the songs it was to,
um, each title is named after someone or something that is the
eventual destruction of humanity and of the world. So “The
Combine,” as you said, I took it from Half-Life 2. It's probably
the most ominous of the enemies in the game, so that's basically
where that all comes from. Other songs like “Skynet” and “Stay
Puft” even are negative mythical creatures that play a part in the
destruction of humanity.
LIKE
TERMINATORS AND LIKE CTHULHU FROM H.P. LOVECRAFT?
Yeah.
DID
YOU EVER READ “ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST” [BY KEN KESEY]?
BECAUSE THAT DEALS WITH THE SAME THINGS AS HALF-LIFE. AND THE FRENCH
PHILOSPHER FOUCAULT ALSO WROTE ABOUT STUFF LIKE THAT.
Really? No, I haven't.
MAYBE
I WENT TOO DEEP ON THAT ONE. MAYBE IT JUST CAME FROM HALF-LIFE.
[Laughs] Yeah, it did.
OK.
“FORGET-ME-NOW”, “CTHULHU”, “BABY BUSTER” AND “BALBOA
TOWERS” ALL SEEM TO DEAL WITH SIMILAR ISSUES. CAN YOU ELABORATE ON
THESE SONGS?
A lot of people ask me if I write songs about specific
people, and I don't. A lot of people say 'Well, why do you hate
women so much?' and I don't. I hate everybody. But the reason I use
the female pronoun of “her” or “she” on many of those [songs]
is because I think it's more romantic than using “him” or “he.”
Basically, when I use the word “she” I'm referring to the world
and I'm referring to humanity, and its kind of grouping them together
into one personality. And that's basically what that's mostly about.
It's just complete and udder destruction, and my personal hatred for
humanity as a being.
IN
“BALBOA TOWERS” THE LYRICS READ, “I HAVE FOUND BEAUTY IN
PERMANENT EXILE. THIS IS MY RECLAMATION. THIS IS MY CONTINENT. I
AM MOST HATED OF THE WORLD.” CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THAT?
That song is about just wanting to be, it's about a
person's search for exile, like the lyric says. The only way that
character can really find true exile is basically destroying all
living beings on Earth. So it's his reclaiming of that plot of land,
the continent. And that's where the title of the record comes from.
Once everything is destroyed and once that person is finally alone
he's truly developed his own continent and his own world.
HOW'S
DR. RON, YOUR NEW MERCH GUY, WORKING OUT?
Vincent: I plea the fifth on that one. He's doing some
work behind us right now.
Dr. Ron: What are you guys talking about?
Vincent: It's none of your f**king business! Um, he's
doing some work right now, he's wearing a v-neck t-shirt. And he's
probably listening to something like Paramore.
AND
HE'S GOT SWOOSHY HAIR.
Vincent: Yeah, he's gay. And not gay like he likes to
suck d*cks.
Dr. Ron: Shut the...
Vincent: Gay like stupid, like a stupid kid. He's like
a hipster and he's really young, so he's really influenced by things.
TIGHT
JEANS AND SWOOSHY HAIR?
Yes. Tight jeans, girl's hair, smokes cigarettes. He
doesn't do the eye liner thing, but he wears v-necks. I'm not really
into them, so I'm probably going to kill him by the end of the tour.
OK.
[A Tour Manager walks up]
Vincent: What's up Swiss?
Swiss: Just hanging.
Vincent: Just hanging? Just taking it in?
Swiss: Yeah, I'm just going to sit with you guys for a
little while.
Vincent: He's just going to sit with us, make sure I'm
giving all the right answers.
OK.
MAKE SURE YOU DON'T SAY ANYTHING INCRIMINATING?
No, I love to incriminate myself!
THAT'S
AWESOME. ALRIGHT, YOU RECENTLY TOURED IN AUSTRALIA, WHAT WAS THAT
LIKE?
Australia is probably the best place on the planet
Earth. If I had to choose to live anywhere, it would probably be
there because it's basically like America, but a better sequel.
Australia is like America but with a more laid back attitude.
There's less anger there, less crime. Everyone's just really nice.
That's my take on Australia. It's probably the only foreign country
that I've been to that I don't mind it and I would love to go back,
ya know?
DID
YOU MAKE OUT WITH ANY KOALAS?
I did not. But I held a koala in my hands. I did not
get syphilis. And I laid down on a kangaroo, that was fun. And we
played in front of anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 people a night. It
was definitely beneficial for us.
YEAH,
AUSTRALIA SEEMS LIKE THE PLACE TO GO. EVERY BAND IS GOING THERE.
Yeah, and I appreciate Parkway Drive for giving us the
opportunity to go over there. I hope to pay them back sometime in
the future, definitely. It was awesome!
COOL.
SO, EVER VIDEO THAT I'VE SEEN OF YOU GUYS, I WAS LAUGHING MY ASS
OFF.
OK, that's good!
SO
TELL ME ABOUT THE VIDEOS.
The Acacia Strain's stance on everything is that if you
can't have fun doing something, don't do it. I mean, that's why
we're in a band. Just to have a good time, ya know? And some people
might hear our CDs or read my lyrics and think that we're 100%
serious all the time. And pretty much we're serious 5% of the time,
and the rest [of the time] we're just out to have a good time. And
we try to portray that in our videos. A lot of the shit on Youtube
and stuff is just so serious. You fall asleep half way through it.
And we try to just make things so people will want to pay attention,
and I think humor is the best way to do that. It's eye-catching I
think.
DEFINITELY!
LIKE HAVING THE BIG BLACK GUYS PLAYING YOUR SONGS!
Oh yeah! Those are my boys!
THAT
WAS HILARIOUS!
We try to do something different, ya know? Playing by
yourself in a warehouse has been over-done, as far as videos are
concerned. So we try and bring a new element to the music video. I
hope we did a good job at it.
YEAH!
SO TELL ME ABOUT THE NEW DVD THAT'S COMING OUT. DO YOU HAVE A
RELEASE DATE?
We
filmed a DVD, we have two separate shows filmed for it. One is at a
small club show, because we like small club shows better than the
huge concert hall shows. So, we do a small club show, there's about
600 people there, it was just a good time. So that'll be on the DVD.
That was in Holyoke, Massachusetts, our home town. Then we did a
show at the Worcester Palladium, and there was about 2,000 people
there, it was sold out. And it's probably the most people we've
played in front of headlining, which was crazy! That was a great
time! It was awesome! So, that was fun. And we're going to do a
whole bunch of other stuff for the DVD, ya know, we like to make
people laugh, so we're going to do a bunch of funny stuff. And do
some audio commentary, like “What were you thinking during this
part of the DVD?” It's going to be called “The Most Known
Unknown”
and it'll be out around July or August. We're shooting for that, and
there's going to be probably a documentary section, like the
Killswitch [Engage] or Lamb of God DVD. Just interviewing people we
know, and their opinion and stories about the Acacia Strain and from
the road. Hopefully it will be entertaining and people will buy it.
Or download it, I don't really care. It's coming to the point where
you can't fight with the internet, so I'm giving up and just telling
people to do it.
CAN'T
BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM?
Exactly.
WHAT
OTHER PLANS DOES THE ACACIA STRAIN HAVE FOR 2009?
We're going to Europe in, well, actually first we have
to finish this tour we're on right now with Bleeding Through. Then
we're playing Bamboozle in New Jersey on the Sunday date with No
Doubt, which is going to be really weird.
IT'S
GOING TO BE A GOOD CROWD THOUGH!
Oh yeah! It's going to be a ton of people! I'm really
excited! A lot of people ask me, “What's up? Why are you playing
that shitty fest with Gwen Stefani and The Used?” And I'm like,
listen! So I can talk shit about every single person that's not
there to see us! And then after that we're playing in Europe. We're
going there with Aborted.
NICE!
THOSE GUYS ARE GOOD! REALLY GOOD!
Most definitely! They're really huge over there, it'll
be a good tour. And then the future is wide open from there. We'll
probably do a headliner. We're going to Japan at the end of August.
That'll be really exciting. We're playing a fest called BloodAxe
Fest, and do some shows around there. And who knows? The future is
wide open.
HAVE
YOU BEEN TO JAPAN BEFORE?
No, never been to Japan. It's one of the two places
I've ever wanted to go in the world. One being Australia, the other
being Japan, so my dreams will be fulfilled. I'm very excited.
NICE!
SO, YOU SAID IN A RECENT INTERVIEW THAT THE INSPIRATION FOR YOUR
LYRICS ARE, “HATRED, NIHILISM, HUMANITY'S DEPENDENCE ON TECHNOLOGY,
AND MY COMPLETE DISGUST FOR EXISTENCE.” YET IN THE SAME INTERVIEW,
YOU STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VISUAL ASPECT OF BEING IN A BAND,
AND HOW RECORDED MEDIA, LIKE BEING IN A DVD, MAKES A BAND IMMORTAL.
HOW DO YOU RATIONALIZE NIHILISM AND THE IDEA OF IMMORTALITY?
Vincent: I am probably 50% nihilistic, I'm not 100%. I
still have that kind of love life attitude. And basically my message
is to tell everyone that's watching this interview to get the fuck
out of here, first of all.
[I'm laughing because a couple random band dudes and
roadies had stopped to watch the interview]
Random band dude: I love you!
Vincent: Yeah right! So, I'm 50% nihilistic and the
rest of me just loves life. It's kind of like, I have a battle going
on inside my brain.
Random band dude: Gay!
Vincent: You're f**king gay!
[The bickering continues for a moment]
HOW
IS THAT [BATTLE] WORKING OUT FOR YOU?
It
works out, because I have the stage to take me out of the happiness
and just focus all my rage and anger on that 45 minutes of my life,
so that's good. But also, I have the stage to spread my message. My
message on this tour has been to love your own life and hate
everybody else's. And that's, I think, what I'm all about lately.
And that is where the tug of war reaches a plateau. It's kind of
like, with the war going on inside my head, I need something to
settle it down. And what does it is that one phrase- Love your own
life and hate everybody else's. Kind of helps me make sense of it
all, ya know? The nihilistic part of me would love to see the world
die tomorrow. But the thing with nihilism is that there's no point
to life,
and I believe that, ya know? Why are we here? Who cares? There is
no real point. But, you're alive, so you might as well deal with it,
ya know? And you might as well have a good time while you're here.
That's where that ends I guess.
WHAT
ARE SOME SPECIFIC THINGS ABOUT HUMANITY THAT YOU HATE?
Specific? Walk down
the street any day of the week. Go into a McDonald's or a Wal-Mart
or anywhere. Go to New York City.
HOW
ABOUT SPECIFIC PET PEEVES?
Well, one thing that
humanity does that specifically bothers me is breathing, because that
keeps them alive. I don't know, maybe talking on your cell phone
really f**king loud in a small confined area, or anywhere. No one
needs to hear your conversation. I don't like the way people drive.
I don't like the way people talk with their mouths full, ya know?
Everybody has their own pet peeves, and I guess mine would be human
life, ya know? That's it. That's all I really have to say, but I
could go on for hours about everything that I hate. But I'm not
going to because you're going to run out of room on that thing [voice
recorder].
I
JUST PUT FRESH BATTERIES IN IT, AND I'VE GOT ABOUT 100 HOURS LEFT.
Oh damn! Well, I'll
spare you! [laughs]
WELL,
YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY READ “ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST” BY
THE WAY. IT'S RIGHT UP YOUR ALLEY.
OK, I definitely
will. I'll look into that, I appreciate that.
COOL!
ANYTHING ELSE?
Just come out to our
shows, have a good time, ya know? Live your life, because you can't
really help it. That's it, I guess.
WELL,
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TAKING A FEW MINUTES TO DO THIS.
Thank you. I
appreciate it. Anytime, even when I didn't know I was supposed to do
this.
RIGHT
ON THE SPOT! THANKS FOR BEING VERY FLEXIBLE!
Exactly! F**k it!
Info:
myspace.com/theacaciastrain
 | Currently listening:
Continent
By The Acacia Strain
Release date: 2008-08-19 |
|
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, April 30, 2009
|
Category: Music
“HYPAETHRAL”
MESSIANIDE
CD RELEASE PARTY
March 28, 2009
by Marisa Connelly
It's a rare treat that I get the chance to write about a
band that I've known for about 10 years, and oddly enough, am still
great friends with all the members. I remember the first Messianide
show poster, they opened for local death metal legends Course of
Extinction. It was black and white with this really fancy geometric
border around the edges. If anyone's interested, the poster is still
hanging on Adam's [O'Connor, drummer] bedroom wall in his home in
Vestal, NY.
I honestly can't remember much from their debut
appearance, but it's been fascinating to watch them all mature from
dorky high schoolers into, well, dorky adults. But, the band has
most definitely evolved, and they've all truly come into their own as
musicians.
I drove down to The Voodoo Lounge, my favorite local
haunt, to show my support at their CD release party for their new
album “Hypaethral”. Swath was already on stage by the time I
arrived, and I think I can say that they're the only instrumental
prog metal band that I really like. I usually get bored after a few
songs if there's no vocals, but Swath's songwriting is interesting
and diverse enough to keep my attention span going. If Man Is Five
then took the stage, and their performance was the best I've seen of
them. I'm not the biggest fan of operatic vocals over hard rock
riffing, a la In This Moment, but they did a decent job entertaining
the crowd.
Messianide then graced the stage with their Suffo-esque
guitar riffs merged with Mr. Bungle like experimentation. Every show
I see, which has been too many to count over the years, these guys
kick it up a notch. Their unity as a band was solid, their playing
was tight, and their music always leaves a pleasant yet funky after
taste in your mouth for quite a while.
Next up was 5 more good friends of mine, Elevator Death
Squad, and I was stoked to see their original drummer [Joe Mauro]
hitting the skins once again. Joe also drums for The Lordz, and had
been on tour with them extensively. EDS was straight up head banging
metal, and their new songs seem to be getting heavier while still
keeping their signature groove.
Overall,
the crowd was psyched, Messianide played a kick-ass set, and it was
just all around good times for everyone. Definitely check out
Messianide's new album “Hypaethral” and if you read this in time,
check out their upcoming show on April 18th
at The Voodoo Lounge in Binghamton, NY with Psyopus, Tetsuo and
Cancerface.
Info:
myspace.com/messianideband
myspace.com/elevatordeathsquad607
myspace.com/ifmanisfive
myspace.com/swathmusic
 | Currently listening:
Mr. Bungle
By Mr. Bungle
Release date: 1991-08-06 |
|
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|
Saturday, March 07, 2009
|
Category: Music
Up From the New York Underground
by Christine Murray
When it comes to combining elements of Thrash Metal, traditional New York hardcore, Death Metal, Left In Ruins has their diverse style of heavy music down to an art. And they're in constant search of ways to diversify that style even more.
Left In Ruins a five piece Heavy Metal band from Ossining, New York, has been working hard over the past few years to establish their name in the underground scene. Though the band has been together since 2004, they didn't really break out onto the scene until late 2006 when they acquired a third guitarist for an even heavier sound. They started out like many other bands do, playing small, local venues, and within a year they were opening for national acts at the Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY and the Webster Theatre in Connecticut.
Though their style is diverse and ever-changing, Left In Ruins bill themselves as a Thrash/Death Metal band. They quote Iron Maiden, Pantera, Black Sabbath, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Goatwhore, and Amon Amarth among their many influences.
In August of 2008 the five piece released their debut album entitled "Straight Out Of Hell". The eight song LP was recorded and produced by Billy Graziadei of Biohazard at his studio in South Amboy, New Jersey.
"Straight Out Of Hell" is an eclectic mix of different styles of Met al with vocals that Billy described as similar to Pete Steele of Carnivore.
Left In Ruins is working hard to promote this album and to get themselves established in the music scene. Their ultimate goal is to make a name for themselves nationally and internationally and to get their music heard by as many people as possible.
Although they have not yet had the opportunity to play outside of a few New England states, Left In Ruins are looking to expand their horizons in the near future, hoping to find a home at a record label and tour the world! When this five piece hits your hometown it may very well be the heaviest and most diverse style of metal you've ever heard!!
To learn more about Left In Ruins, or to listen to their tunes, please visit www. myspace. com/leftinruinsmetal
Their debut album "Straight Out Of Hell" can be purchased by sending $12 (cash, check, or money order) to: Left In Ruins - P.O. Box 923 - Ossining, NY 10562. Or the album can be downloaded at iTunes. com and search Left In Ruins.
Powered by | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|
|