…n the best possible spots based on their range and abilities, or is a trial-and-error process worked through to get to the final results? Aday: Again, it’s what just really works best. Jim and I love singing together. We don’t really compete for parts, or nobody is really puffing their chests up. What works best for the song, we will sing things together or sometimes Jim will say, I should sing that line, and I’ll say I want to hear him sing it. I…
…th behind the performances – now I can sing live without worrying for forty-five minutes in a performance, from an overall health, wellness, and self-esteem perspective is really great. Dead Rhetoric: What can you tell us in regard to the simplified art you chose for this record? Shapiro: We talked to a lot of artists and had a lot of different ideas. They were a little bit more complex than what we ended up with. At the end of the day, one of my…
…cking technique, he scratches more with his pick while I have more the ‘dug-ah-dug-ah-dug’. These are things that make his playing a bit more aggressive than mine. Overall, I think my theory, and understanding of the guitar changed a lot because I started teaching guitar. I had to dig into the theory more, and I never did that before. I understand more how to do the harmonies, how to improvise in solos in different ways. Dead Rhetoric: And how did…
…cuss the idea behind the cover art – who designed this, and was this a back-and-forth collaboration between the band and artist or did you trust the vision set forth? Valentin: I guess the idea – I pulled some of the inspiration from the old Heavy Metal magazines. I really love the sense of scale that artists like Moebius (Jean Giraud) and Philippe Druillet, the artists from the 70’s had. I pulled a couple of pieces from that, and the artist we wo…
…have made my guitars different. I had his drums, so I attacked them and re-write my rhythms to compliment the drums. It came across more like a band than in a rehearsal room. Steve threw his monster bass on top of this. We have this wall of sound that has great metal songs – and I’m really proud to have these members on this. Dead Rhetoric: The first two videos have done very well as far as promotion before the record comes out. Is it an easy cho…
…unfeasible. We have to just make the best of what is out there if we want to keep playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI8TS-hXF-8 Napalm Death on Facebook…
…a mix of progressive rock, metal, and thrash aspects – injecting the Voivod-ian personal touch their long-time fanbase expects and appreciates. We reached out to Away for a conversation where we learn more about the isolation differences that make the new record energetic and different, how revisiting older albums for special live streaming shows kept their chops up, more talk of the future band documentary, artwork and videos, plus lots of specia…
…be? Cruz: To play live [laughs]. First and foremost, that COVID goes away fast, as that is what is keeping us from doing the normal thing. We like playing live more than the writing, and the studio can be kind of boring for me. I know that the record will succeed, but it won’t be an explosion because we are starting over at zero after being away for a bit. But I hope that we can get out there and play, and then in a few years we will have a new r…
…we completed that record in June 2020, the album had been mixed and I was writing follow-up tracks for what would be The World Enslaved. Aaron was on board to do stuff, and then Jeff Waters reached out to him. They had a discussion, and it’s not my place to comment on it. He was presented with opportunities that probably would have come to fruition last year as well for him. I don’t begrudge him; Aaron wants to do this full-time and would love to…
…as “Enter the Void”, “Rot in Hell”, and the surprisingly melodic/catchy “He-M-An” (aka ‘Heavy… Metal… Animals!’). Not exactly original in approach (the opening riff to “Crimson Eyes” from clean to heavy transition Annihilator fans will know immediately), the execution will get the underground abuzz and thrashing about, and that’s the main appeal Space Parasites aim to achieve. – Matt Coe (Space Parasites official website) Worm Shepherd – Ritual Hy…
…eamed of. Dead Rhetoric: With the Magic of Windfyre Steel is the debut full-length for Power Paladin. What were the songwriting and recording sessions like for this record? Any special moments or memories standout – and did you have to work through any obstacles, surprises, or COVID-19 related restrictions to get the final output the way you envisioned? Porisson: The recording sessions were often short and far in between in the beginning because w…
…ew album Purgatorio in the same year, and Firepower was in the top of many best lists of that year’s best albums. I loved the fact that Priest was back in business. They had made some mediocre albums for many years, and this was the first album in years I listen to a lot from the band. If you ask Henrik, he would pick the older stuff – Screaming for Vengeance or Ram It Down. I would say Painkiller for me. I love that heavier Priest style – which i…
…ded in the time before that. I went through a pretty rough time around 2016-17, and now I feel a lot more self-confident than ever before and accomplished. My outlook on life has changed. A lot of things happen in your late thirties and early forties where your perception changes. It’s like halftime for your life, you are recharging. In my twenties for example I was just searching for things, meaning in life. There was always this element of doubt…
…ed or postponed last minute. I understood that there would be a lot of walk-up or a lot of walk-out. Every day was just different. Scissorhands: Some cities didn’t care and they were sellouts. Some cities had limitations about how many people that they would let in. But no matter what, we had a lot of fun. Either in front of 100 people, 50 people…I don’t think we every had 50 [laughs]. But there were smaller venues that had different rules and lim…
…ch other. Especially in the studio. The first record we had with this three-vocalist lineup, we had to basically rush it. It was crazy fast, the release was scheduled for April 2018 and the recordings for the vocals were scheduled for January 2018. Alessia and I had joined the band in December of 2017. Everything was so super fast, we knew each other before with Marco and the guys, but the studio time was intense and we gave the best we could with…
…pend time with my family) too, but something that has occurred is my eleven-year-old son is quite the soccer goalkeeper. He practices four times a week and I have become his goalkeeper coach. I’m also the assistant coach on his team, he’s practicing at a very top level. That is a brand new thing for me. I was an assistant coach before on his team, but I didn’t know things were going to be this professional and that he was going to aim so high at t…
…atmosphere and keeping the interest of your listeners through an eleven-and-a-half-minute track? Hudson: Oh yes. “Nature’s Revenge” is the first long song I’ve ever written. I have always had the vision for one. Long songs can get really boring really fast. Especially if there is a lot of orchestration, they can be hard to listen to. I never had anything to talk about, so that’s why I never wrote a long song. This is about the pandemic. When the p…
…e got into the studio. Moving forward, our bassist and both our guitarists write, I write sometimes, Steve will throw stuff in the mix. We are going to be getting together to refine and figure out the best ideas amongst all of us. Organically together in the room, and this will be an evolution. Kraken is a bigger evolution than anything we’ve put out before. Dead Rhetoric: Your modern metalcore sound encompasses a wide array of influences – are th…
…h the borders closing. It was not exactly cheap to fly to the USA for a one-off show, pay for the buses, crew, and backlighting and everything else. That was our first impression of COVID-19. Dead Rhetoric: That was definitely a horrible start for you guys, and you are with both Omnium and Insomnium, it was a double whammy for you. Vanhala: Yeah, a double-loss. We decided to do the live stream with both bands, and we basically one of the first ban…
…laying to pick playing. That’s why he could join Paradox again. We are long-time friends. Axel got the fire back to play drums again. He’s a co-founder of Paradox. He would visit me each week, drink coffee together and talk about music. He asked during the recordings of Pangea if he should start playing drums again, he knew that I had to search for a new drummer. He is my best friend, he started working at the drums each day for two years. Dead Rh…
…enhance the overall work ethic and morale of the group? Lovio: I do the day-to-day stuff, the social media posts, video and photo edits. I run the Facebook page and the Instagram account. Putting together flyers, I can do that easily. I usually end up selling our merch after the show, I like talking to people after they saw us, how they are doing. We are all fans too. Eddie just joined the band, everyone is good. We are all really good friends. So…
…song for the first time, and totally understand it. Our music is not cookie-cutter, radio-friendly. It takes a few listens to see what is really going on. At the end of the day, it’s just personal tastes too. Not a lot of people have the maturity to say, “It’s not my cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.” That’s okay! It doesn’t make me feel any less or anything like that. Dead Rhetoric: You have started in another band called SickSense. Cou…
…ple, our photo shoot earlier today. Those photo shoots are normally like 20-30 pictures. We will probably post 1-3 max. The others are going to be on Patreon. I think it’s fair. There’s so much work behind every picture and every show, behind every video there are a ton of people involved. I share a lot of what I eat and do on tour – people are curious but I don’t feel like sharing that on Instagram really. I don’t want to bore people with what I…
…with other people, how you troubleshoot problems that are unexpected. How fast do you set up your gear, get on stage and play – how fast do you break down so the other band(s) can get on. How you negotiate all these other things when you are playing a show. Those aspects of performing are very important. If you are that band that finishes their set and doesn’t break their shit down quickly, people get behind and they aren’t going to want to book…
…of release – if I love it, it goes to the subscribers. It’s more of a taste-making service I guess. I like it as well because a lot of subscribers message and say, “I never would have picked this up, I’m so glad I have it.” That’s kind of nice, it expands people’s musical horizons. It’s good for the label because it helps with the budget and little things like that. It provides some security. Dead Rhetoric: It’s early on, but is there any added st…
…on those can be very daunting. It’s the equivalent of a cup of coffee or a cheap breakfast at the low end. Wessels: On the one hand yes, and I wanted to keep it nice and easy like that. The main reward had to be the song of the month, and I wanted everyone to have that regardless of their tier. That was a very easy thing to decide upon. One of the things I also realized, that even though like you said, it’s $3, for some people to take that out of…
…nue being the machine and cranking out song after song, piece after piece, essay after essay. Dead Rhetoric: Has it been important then to have the support of family and friends that aren’t necessarily in your life that aren’t as connected with your music and what you do to balance things out? Kosto: Yes. Even if you do have friends that are into the same thing, it’s really nice to know that you have people that know when not to talk about work. A…
…ar songs. I think there’s only one song on the album that goes verse-chorus-verse-chorus, they all have themes though. It’s really nice when someone has caught a stray line – I put tons of attention to detail in getting the timing right and the syllables – and you realize that it’s the 18th line in a bridge that no one is actually listening to because it’s 7-minutes into the song. Then one person comes out and they like it, that’s enough. Dead Rhe…
…of what can be perceived by other people. Dead Rhetoric: Do you find your best songwriting occurs in the morning after a good night’s sleep? Matheos: (laughs). I start in the morning. If things are going well for me, I can start at eight in the morning and go to ten o’clock at night, no problem. If it’s not going well or I don’t feel inspired I’ll avoid the studio like the plague. Dead Rhetoric: What can you tell us about the abstract cover art f…
…careen into one another, sometimes going from full force insanity to Gojira-like mid-tempo stomp in a nanosecond. The layers of guitars create this frantic sonic wave of energy that can translate into key circular progressive sequences of shimmering ecstasy – elements of Death, Opeth, Behemoth, Wolfheart, and others springing to the forefront during the back and forth speed to calmer shifts of favorite “The Manifestation of Supreme Darkness” – dru…
