All Shall Perish – Rotten To the Core
Saturday, 30th March 2013
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)
From this scribe’s oft-biased and jumbled perspective, All Shall Perish were nothing more than a second-rate band playing a third-rate scene, which of course is the deathcore scene. Albums like 2006’s Price of Existence and 2008’s Awaken the Dreamers were hardly anything to go nuts about given the band’s propensity for clunky beatdowns paired with flashy guitar playing.
The band appears to have gotten their act together with this year’s worthyThis Is Where It Ends. By effectively honing their sound into a potent technical/melodic death metal attack, ASP has brought their A-game on songs like “There Is Nothing Left,” “Embrace the Curse” and the epic “In This Life of Pain.” The guitar tandem of Francesco Arusato and founding member Ben Orum aren’t ones to be fucked with either, as the two light things up with flighty lead runs and crisp, but potent riffing. This Is Where It Ends doesn’t totally negate the band’s prior output, but it’s the first step toward getting out of the gutter that is deathcore.
Currently making the round on this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, we snagged Artusato to wax on life on the tour, the new album, and the aforementioned deathcore tag. Here’s what the affable guitarist had to say…
Blistering.com: With these big tours, you must have a lot of free time. What do you end up doing?
Francesco Artusato: Off-stage, you never know. You might want to stop somewhere and rest somewhere or need some gear that needs tended to because it’s not working properly, so you have to work with the crew to fix it. Or you hang out. On a normal day with a show, you get up, have breakfast, warm up, play the show, then hang out with friends. We do a meet-and-greet everyday at 4:30 at our booth, so we get to meet with a lot of kids of who stop by. There’s lot of free time, but you always find a way to do something.
Blistering.com: Thus far, how has the tour gone? How are the crowds?
Artusato: Oh man, it’s been so awesome. Everyday has had an incredible crowd…like a huge amount of people. Touring has been so much fun, hanging out with all of the bands has been great, they’re all so friendly right down to the tour managers. It’s been so awesome.
Blistering.com: You’re probably getting a half hour each day, so what’s the song selection been?
Artusato: We’re playing three songs from Price of Existence, one song fromAwaken the Dreamers and three songs from the new record, so six.
Blistering.com: As for the new songs, how are they working out?
Artusato: There’s a good variety of songs. One’s pretty heavy, one is very melodic and energetic and one is epic, so there’s a lot of variety and [we] see it from the crowd. They’re taking to it in the right way. A lot of people already know the songs…they’ve downloaded the album even though it’s not even out. I see it as a good thing. It’s a brand-new song, but you see the whole crowd singing along.
Blistering.com: You’ve been in the band barely a year, so you’ve gone from joining, to making the album to this tour. What’s the last year been like?
Artusato: It doesn’t even feel like it’s been a year. I’ve already done so much touring and writing an album. I already have a lot of freedom in putting [in] my ideas. Everybody respects each other’s ideas. That’s how the album came out and that’s how it came out so quickly. We were writing for a long time, but when it came time to put it together, it came very easy. It felt finally that I’m doing a project where I can put my talent into something and get positive feedback from the shows. I’m really glad the fans are taking it the right way and people aren’t talking about the old guitar player. He did a lot of great stuff, so now it’s not a matter of comparing the two. It’s not like it was a year ago.
Blistering.com: Ben’s pretty accomplished in his own right anyway.
Artusato: Oh yeah. We’re always bouncing ideas off each other – it’s just like you’re hanging out with a friend. It’s just awesome. I’m sure that’s the approach we’ll have for the next album.
Blistering.com: “There Is Nothing Left” has to be your best song to date. You just did a video for it, so that one must be resounding for you and the band. Are there are songs on the album that stack up to it?
Artusato: The way I am with the album and with music, I’m so consumed with everything I’m doing. During the recording process, I’m never happy – I keep re-recording stuff. And then once it’s down, I listen to it and I might have a favorite song and a favorite part for a couple of days, but then I get a different idea and start thinking I could have done something else. It keeps changing. The good thing about this album is that we wrote every single song to not sound like the one before it. Each song has its own identity.
Blistering.com: That must be hard to deal with, never be satisfied. Are you happy with your work on the album or are there things you want to go back and re-do?
Artusato: I am satisfied with what I’ve done with this album. I took every single note and thought about. It wasn’t like, “I’m going to record this solo and keep it.” I was very picky, I keep re-recording things. I am happy, but at the same time, I look forward to coming up with new ideas and come up with a more fresh sound next time. That’s just how I am. Sometimes it’s a curse. I’m so happy with what I do and it’s not because I’m not satisfied, I just want to get better.
Blistering.com: Do you think this album takes away the deathcore tag? It might be the first time anyone can say that about All Shall Perish.
Artusato: Thank you for saying that. We are more like a “metal band,” not just some sub-genre. Right now we really feel like this is “us,” our identity, not some tag. And we’re going to keep evolving. We’re going to keep getting better and writing and coming up with more mature material. Like you said, I don’t think this is a deathcore album.
Blistering.com: There’s a lot of cool guitar parts on here that must deathcore bands wouldn’t attempt anyway.
Artusato: The goal is to write great music. Having kids learning their instruments and learning from our riffs…that’s very cool.
www.myspace.com/allshallperish
