Perseverance and a strong work ethic usually pay off in the end – even in heavier musical genres. Death Rattle hail from New England, a robust outfit that with this third album The Moral Chokehold elevate their groove metal platform to larger heights in terms of sound, songwriting, and performances. Seeking out the professional services of Kevin Billingslea (Lamb of God, Trivium) as producer and Jens Bogren of Fascination Street Studios for mastering, the record has dynamic versatility and strength to stand the test of time. We reached out to guitarist Ryan VanderWolk to discuss his personal musical memories in childhood, all the hard work behind the new record including relationship struggles post-pandemic, joining M-Theory Audio, live performance thoughts, the challenges of getting your music heard in today’s scene, as well as future touring / recording plans.
Dead Rhetoric: What can you tell me about your earliest memories surrounding music growing up in childhood? At what point did you start gravitating towards heavier forms of music – and eventually the desire to pick up an instrument and play in your own bands?
Ryan VanderWolk: That’s a good question. When I was growing up my dad listened to a lot of classic rock. He loved the Marshall Tucker Band, we would listen to a lot of Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, and what have you. A couple of bands when I was nine, ten, and eleven years old that started to grab me was, he listened to a lot of Black Sabbath, a love of Van Halen, and those bands got me more interested in heavier stuff. When I was twelve, I fell in love with Rage Against the Machine, because my older brother was into them. He was four years older than me at sixteen, so I thought he was the coolest guy in the world. I still think he’s a cool guy. A little while after he started playing guitar. I didn’t have an interest in playing the guitar until I heard Ride the Lightning by Metallica. Like many people will say the same story, I waited for my dad to get home from work, and I wanted to play heavy metal guitar. This is the coolest thing ever, and I wanted to do this. Like a million other people before me, Metallica started me on my guitar journey.
Dead Rhetoric: And did you take any formal lessons or have any training – or just pick up things playing by ear and woodshedding to get your skills up?
VanderWolk: A combination. I didn’t take any lessons; I could barely afford lessons as a kid. I had a little Mexican Telecaster that my dad got me for Christmas, I had a Peavey Rage 150 amp. When I started playing, I would lock myself in my bedroom for whole weekends, and after school, playing it as much as I could. I drove my dad up the wall for a while with it. I couldn’t stop doing it, woodshedding like eight hours a day, ten hours a day. For a couple of years, I played guitar and I kind of shut the world out.
Dead Rhetoric: The Moral Chokehold is the third album for Death Rattle – and first in eight years for the group. How did the band break through that time off as there was a time where you guys yourselves may have wondered if you would survive, especially given the circumstances that took place for the pandemic?
VanderWolk: Yeah, it was tough. We were cruising along, we put a couple of records out, including one in 2017. And we had done some US touring, and a couple of Japan trips. The first couple of Japan tours were in 2019 and 2020. We had some issues in the band we had to work through, and it was okay. We were trying to move forward on the next record – by 2019 we were trying to get that ball rolling. We had a Japan tour in 2020 with Cattle Decapitation, Revocation, and a band from Australia that is no more called Remission. In that tour was the beginning of COVID, so we were flying to Japan. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even called COVID yet. To put it in perspective, when we were in Nagoya for the middle city of the tour in Japan, the first US case was confirmed. We had a split consensus in the band on continuing the tour. Chris and I wanted to move forward, Trey and Kevin were apprehensive. It ended up being a massive worldwide pandemic.
Eleven days later we had a show booked in Maine we were going to play. We didn’t play it. We had a lot of tension in the band – I had gotten into a big blowout fight with Trey; he’s a great dude but tensions were high. It was a fight about going out and hanging with the bands to commemorate the tour. We were walking around with masks on – we had never walked around with masks on in our lives. It was a tense time. We came home from that tour, and we didn’t speak to each other for eighteen months. I was jamming in another project with Chris at the time, and still am – we were on a whole different thing. I eventually said to Chris we need to get back in the saddle again, get jamming again. He thought I would never ask. We started jamming, none of those songs were finished, killer riffs, chunks of sections. We had multiple meetings about what we thought we were going to do, a reset, a reformation almost.
So, we did, we worked on this new record and came out of things so much stronger. Because Trey was so involved in this process, he’s been so helpful, intuitive and knowledgeable. With the first two records – he was not on the first record, and he’s on the second record but the majority of the stuff was written by me and the original vocalist. Maybe a song and a half were written by Trey. The music has almost always been exclusively written by me. And that’s not by choice – I was putting the work in and making it happen. This record was more collaborative and had help from everybody. Trey was incredibly instrumental. Chris had a lot of great ideas, and put some great flair on the record.
What makes this record so much stronger is having outside help. Having Trey as a vocalist, but also as an engineer and a producer, he is very knowledgeable and has great ideas. He was able to bring this record to places that I was never able to do, writing most of the music. He has some progressive elements, metalcore elements, all kinds of cool stuff. The first single we dropped “Immersed in the Black”, I had a whole different vision for it. He had different ideas, and he reformulated it to come out twice as good as the idea I had. The people we worked with on the record were very helpful as well.
Dead Rhetoric: What did you want to get across with the new record that maybe differs or expands upon what you’ve done previously with Man’s Ruin and Volition – from the musical as well as lyrical perspectives?
VanderWolk: I think the first two records were a little more linear. I feel really good about those songs; however, the production wasn’t as good, and the songs weren’t very deep in the sense of the musicality. And we are constantly compared to Lamb of God – that’s what we are put up against. We are trying to develop more of our own voice, our own style. I think we got a lot more of that on this record – although I have been hearing we sound a lot more like Gojira (laughs). I guess you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t – which is a big influence of ours. We are trying to grow and shape more of our own sound. Express ourselves, you know.
Trey wrote the majority of this record lyrically – which is the first Death Rattle record where I wasn’t a big part of writing the lyrics. I wrote one song, and contributed some parts – but the lion’s share was written by Trey. Everything from the deception we were living under during the pandemic to human issues. “Malthusian Dependency”, that one is based on the theory that the human population is going to outgrow the food supply. It’s since been debunked but it’s a good topic to talk about. There’s a theme that opens the record with “The Light” and a theme that closes the record with “The Darkness” – they oppose each other. “The Darkness” is my favorite song on the record. Trey is a very intelligent, esoteric guy – he put a lot of thoughts into the lyrics. He did an amazing job.
Dead Rhetoric: How did the guest spot with Speed Strid of Soilwork fame come about for “Nietzsche, and the Fall”? Where do you see the importance of special guests in coloring the final product – have there ever been times where you got into a specific musician because of their collaboration or guest appearance?
VanderWolk: The last question, not so much for me as far as collaborations. But covers, there are a lot of bands I’ve discovered because I never even realized it wasn’t their own song they were doing. Trey lined that up. Trey, it’s his hero. Dimebag Darrell is my hero. That would be the equivalent for me having a Dimebag Darrell solo on our record. Trey had done a song previously with Speed on another of our friend’s bands albums, Western Massacre. Great dudes. We tried to step up and get a guest spot and he was willing to do it. He thought the song was strong – he kicked ass. We don’t usually have clean singing, so it’s the first time we’ve ever had clean singing on a record. That’s new to us – I’ve always felt that we don’t fit well with our style to do this, but I guess if it’s done right, it works. Speed is unbelievable. The irony is I love all kinds of metal. I’m not a genre specific person.
Dead Rhetoric: How did you gain the interest of M-Theory Audio? What do you enjoy most about their roster – as they have a great mix of New England talent like Let Us Prey and Aversed as well as national/ international artists in a variety of metal genres?
VanderWolk: Yeah. M-Theory – we were label shopping this record. We put a lot of money into this record, a lot of time, a lot of work. It was a very expensive record to do. We were trying to do the best we could to get it out there, in the best way that we could. One thing we liked, out of the offers that we had that we liked, one of the reasons why we went with M-Theory is there is a familiarity with some bands on the label. We didn’t know Aversed was signing with them, we found out a week before we announced we signed with them. I know Let Us Prey, I know the guys in Living Wreckage which include some of the Shadows Fall guys. I know people on the roster – Scott Eames our manager is also on the label with his band Nevalra. Looking at every offer that we had, we liked Marco’s track record. I heard really great things about him; he’s an awesome guy. Our management handled all this stuff. Who he’s worked for, I had a lot of respect for that, and he had a lot of respect for what we did. To have someone of his stature and experience, to respect what we are doing, I really appreciate that. We had different scenarios of label offers. They would listen to a couple of songs and say great – we’ll sign you. Or look into this more, or not listen to me. There are a million things that can happen.
Dead Rhetoric: Tell us about the special three-part YouTube video series you made where you mirror Behind the Music – do you believe this provides more insight into the members, your passion for the band, and how you had to handle keeping the band together through the pandemic?
VanderWolk: Yeah, and again I just have to send a shout out to Trey on this one. He is an incredible asset and bandmate, and he did all the editing on that. We were trying to tell the story of everything that was going on as we returned, to try to get back. That series is so much fun. We hope people like it and it gets the point across.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you consider some of the biggest challenges currently facing Death Rattle at this juncture of your career?
VanderWolk: I think it’s tough in general to do band stuff when it’s not something you can do financially and exclusively. We are all working, trying to make it happen. We did a lot of touring this year, and I wish it was way more; it went so well. It’s trying to balance the family life, the work life, and the band life, to make it happen. Travel costs so much money, gear costs so much money, doing records costs so much money. It is what it is, and we find a way to get through it. That’s one of the main challenges. We toured 50% of the first quarter this year – we did a three-week US run, then three weeks in Japan and Europe shortly after that. We did a lot of touring early on, so we have to recover from that, start working on the next ones.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see the importance of your live performances next to what people experience on the records? And what have been some of your favorite or most memorable shows to date for the group?
VanderWolk: I think a lot of bands vary where they are. Some bands are better on record; some bands are better live. We really try to be the best live band we possibly can be. We put a lot into our live show. You would have to see it; it took a lot of years to develop. It took five or six years to get the show to where it’s at now, it’s been a slow developing thing. Building things, spending money, the light show, outro and intro tracks, inner ear systems. That’s our bread and butter, the live show I feel is one of our strengths. And so, we try to do this as much as we can.
Favorite shows – the last tour we completed was probably our favorite tour. We did two shows in Japan with Left to Die – which includes members of Death, they are incredible, with our friends in The Convalescence and our new friends in Defiled. A Japanese death metal band, they kick ass, they are so awesome. We went to Europe with Gorgoroth, Aeturnus, and our new friends from Hungary, Archaic. These guys are awesome, a young thrash band, they kicked ass. Every night was either packed or sold out. It’s the most countries we’ve ever played on a tour. It’s tough to say single shows – be it festivals or big gigs, it’s tough to pick that. We will go with the last tour.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you say have been some of the biggest lessons learned while on the road? And do you have any advice for younger bands when it comes to the road that would be helpful long-term?
VanderWolk: A lot of it comes down to relationships. Being good to each other, being respectful. Doing your job, getting on and off stage as fast as you can, not being a hindrance. Sometimes if you have bands that miss that boat a little bit, it makes the tour stressful, and the show more stressful. If you are going to be professional on and off stage, you’ll be professional in most areas. Get after things the best that you can – do what makes your heart sing.
Dead Rhetoric: You mentioned earlier in this interview your love of Dimebag Darrell, and that Pantera is one of your all-time favorite bands. Did you ever get the chance to see him live before he passed away tragically?
VanderWolk: Yes, I saw Pantera one time in 2001 on their final tour in the United States. And then I got to see Dimebag with Vinnie in Damageplan two weeks before Dimebag was killed. I got to meet them as well, that was cool. I wish I was ten years older than I am so I could have seen them more throughout the 90s. That group of guys, there was nothing like them. The tightness, the power they had, incredible.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you assess the metal music industry and the shifting practices that seem to be taking place year by year? If you had the ability to work on or change things given unlimited resources, what areas would you tackle first?
VanderWolk: Oh man. I don’t know how to answer that question. It’s never been harder to get out there and try to grow a band. There is so much competition, there is only so much bandwidth, and only so much money floating around. If you think about it, you have all the legacy bands with legendary stuff, they are not going anywhere. This iteration of Pantera is back, you have Lamb of God crushing the world, you have the Trivium / Bullet For My Valentine tour that just came through. These legacy records and bands that have been around for a long time, they aren’t going anywhere. You are competing against that, and all the new breed of metal. There are a lot of great bands coming out there today. They are really well put together. It’s a tough industry out there, and money is less and less as time as gone. You have to self-finance a lot of things. Most bands, even sizeable bands, it’s tough. You can only do so much.
What would I change about it? It’s interesting because with streaming we’ve made everything super convenient. You can listen to music all day, every day, switch music styles in two seconds. Go to podcasts and records in seconds. I think that’s obviously hurt the industry too. One of my favorite sayings is from Thomas Sowell – ‘in life there are no solutions, there are only tradeoffs.’. With the tradeoff, the convenience has made things harder. Lars (Ulrich) was right – he was right (laughs).
Dead Rhetoric: I do remember back in the early 2000’s they thought he was evil for his thoughts on downloading and how it would affect the music industry and musicians. It wasn’t controlled properly like it has been in the movie industry…
VanderWolk: People were like, why is this rich guy, mega rock star, telling me this is wrong! He was right.
Dead Rhetoric: Part of the problem is, even on my end as a journalist, trying to keep up with all the releases weekly these days, there are so many releases from all over the world. It’s hard to keep up with that much material…
VanderWolk: No doubt about it. When I think of the industry in general, I think about how much time, work, money, preparation, travel, focus, and sacrifice was made just to do this record. To film the videos, the playthroughs, the lyric videos, all this stuff, photography, artwork, layouts. The amount of stuff goes into it, and you are like this little speck of sand at the beach. (laughs). You look at what releases are coming out week by week. Something will crush us. It’s the way it’s going to be.
Dead Rhetoric: What are three records that you believe shaped your outlook on the metal genre? And what’s your favorite concert memory, attending a show as a fan in the audience – and what made that so special to you?
VanderWolk: The favorite concert is pretty easy for me. It was the only time I’ve ever gone to a European festival. It was the 2016 Hellfest. The lineup was ridiculously beyond absurd. I saw Black Sabbath, Rammstein, all the big four bands of thrash minus Metallica. Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax. Killswitch Engage, I love them, another of my favorite bands- probably in my top four or five of all-time. There were so many great bands. Even The Offspring was there – it was very eclectic.
Three metal albums. Pantera – The Great Southern Trendkill. I love the anger, the aggression, and the power of that record. It’s actually the least amount of lead guitar that Dimebag did on a record. It’s so visceral. Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake. That record is perfect from front to back. Definitely one of the best modern metal records since 2000. Gojira – The Way of All Flesh. I love everything this band does.
Dead Rhetoric: What concerns do you have most about the world that we are going through currently? Where do you think more time/energy needs to be spent for the average person to be better able to handle the challenges that life throws at them?
VanderWolk: If you listen to “Nietzsche, and the Fall”, which is our third single – the lyrics and the main hook is, ‘thought is dead’. We are in an era where people aren’t thinking things through enough. We are making impulsive decisions, and I think a lot of the media, and a lot of stuff is divisive. Historically a lot of bad things have happened when this sort of thing happens. Another lyric in that song is ‘where is the meaning’. What is the meaning in life? As I’m getting older, I put more into practice that things that are meaningful are what’s meaningful. Friendships, relationships, helping people – a big part of my life is helping people. When I was younger, I needed a lot of help. I try to pay that forward when I can, as I find the most meaning in that. Try to be as good as I can be. I think that’s a lesson that we can all try to follow.
Juxtapose that to when I was younger. I was angry, I was violent, I was being stupid, all kinds of dumb stuff. I try to be the polar opposite of that, and be useful. Life is hard. I know it sounds interesting to say this, but if I had advice for young people, my number one advice is learn economics. The reason I say that is, if you understand economics, most of the things that fool us can’t fool us. You know how things work. We are all so much closer as people than we think we are. It doesn’t take that much work to look into these things.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the agenda for anything related to Death Rattle over the next year or so?
VanderWolk: We have a chunk of songs started for the next record. We will put a lot of this year towards that, and get the next record done. It’s always a one-to-two-year process. Hopefully one more tour this year, I’d like to do two tours if we can. Planning shows and promoting the record, as much as we can do on our end.