…the agenda for Sepultura now that borders are starting to open up – will the next year or two be spent making up for lost ground through touring and festival opportunities? Has work behind the scenes already begun piecing together material for the follow-up record? Kisser: Writing, we are always writing. Eloy and I are always in touch, riffs and drum loops. We are building things. We want to tour Quadra, get back on the road and represent our las…
…the last two records? Thunder: Yeah, we hope that we can get an album out faster than the seven-year gap. I think we will. There are a lot of factors that will help with that, we are happy with our current label. Each time we came out with an album, we had a new label, it felt like starting over again. We have the business side sorted. It’s just a case of writing the music we want to put out and being 100% happy with it before going into the stud…
…und ended, but it definitely has gone away. Barber: I think it was like pre-In Flames turning into a nu-metal band [laughs], or something like that. Dead Rhetoric: What do you feel is the goal of the band? Barber: Really, at the beginning of last year we found ourselves with cancelled tours and an unknown amount of time. Chris and I had been talking about doing something like this for a while. Eric [Brown], the drummer, and I had been on tour for…
…l lyrical mentality – Dave Mustaine had a philosophy about really good songwriters write about ideas and concepts, not about literal things. Those are the everlasting songs. I enjoy going through central ideas and breaking them down into easy to digest lyrics. You can take something and make it pertain to something else totally and it works. Vaughan does more of the war and history stuff – he’s a history buff. Ancient civilizations, world wars, so…
…e. It’s becoming so much easier and cost efficient to be honest to be a one-man project or a two-man band that’s just a studio thing. It’s hard to find three or four people to play music together that you all agree on, and keep them around with the finances, schedules. Being able to afford to be a band – this stuff isn’t cheap! This is my first time doing more of the admin work for a band, I have help with other guys in the band. Our drummer Pat d…
…all around the world come to me, and usually I round it up with giving one-on-one workshops and also having 15-20 people in one place. But I couldn’t do that, so as the pandemic stuck around, I tried to do that online and it worked well. But the teaching aspect is a very rewarding thing. Screaming is a lot of fun, and accompanying people on their way – how to scream and fill the air with growls – they just lit up when they figure it out. The othe…
…um, we are very excited to hear people’s thoughts on it. We are constantly writing, we have a second full-length half written, five songs ready out of planned ten to twelve. We will do the Instagram live streams, they are something our fans like and enjoy watching. We will go back on the road, we have shows confirmed for next year. We are playing the Hyperspace Metal Festival in Vancouver, B.C. Bands like Helion Prime, Gatekeeper, a lot of those k…
…t feel the need to go out and teach my techniques. When I was asked by Drum-Technique Academy to do an online clinic for them, I looked at their materials and thought they were way better. They were very structured. If I was a young drummer and I wanted to approach double bass drumming, I would definitely book that program. So with songwriting, it’s different. Most of my songwriting comes from a position where I stand in front of my cd shelf and I…
…e dealing with unbelievable heat here in LA. I was sweating at my computer writing music. Honestly, those are some of best songs on the record! Even last year, when we finished the record, I was thinking about how it all was connected. Music was the only way for me to feel decent at the time. So a lot of that is in there. The other guys in the band, they share that with me. Howard [Jones] was really aware. When we started getting to preproduction…
…a massive legal tie-up due to the Fear Factory name as well as the heated online controversy between now ex-member Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares, it seems lucky that we are even sitting here discussing this album at all. And long time fans have much to be thankful for, as Aggression Continuum is one of the strongest Fear Factory albums, period. That futuristic, cinematic cyber groove that has defined Fear Factory is ultimately at its best with…
…, they thought I was stillborn. The doctor thought I was dead. I was purple-ish, gray-ish blue, and I wasn’t breathing, screaming, or crying. I was just completely still and cold. They were freaking out for the first few minutes, assuming I was dead. My parents told me that when I was like 10 or 11 and I kind of just started thinking about it. I had started dressing more gothic when I was like 9 years old. I started wearing black lipstick and stuf…
…so a bit of a new chapter as well. Cazares: It’s kind of funny, during the writing and recording process for Mechanize, I was actually writing and recording Bringer of Plagues for Divine Heresy. So I think some of my intense elements in Divine Heresy kind of transpired into some of the vibe for Mechanize. Even though they are completely different styles, the energy and aggressive [is there]. When you have guys like Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud in…
…ve control over who you have in your life, and you have a right to do that online as well. If someone is openly being nasty online, people always crack out that line ‘it’s a public Facebook page, and I can say what I like,’ well actually its my Facebook page and my rules, so no you don’t. It’s about setting your own standards and rules. Dead Rhetoric: The concept of mental health and getting help seems to be an important one to the band. Could you…
…t we have been through. The income of the average Greek person went down 40-50%. At the same time, taxes went 2-4 times higher. It was totally impossible to survive. You could walk down a street and find people searching in the garbage for something to eat. Then the government, which I don’t support – I have to say that I’m not voting for them – but they said that this cannot be happening anymore. What they did to us was that they shut down our ba…
…it’s not worth it. All of the concerts are booked on very short notice for now. In 2022, things can be planned better again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ij-ECgDdBg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oa6o_K-02Q Burning Witches official website…
…at a drummer should do here and there, know the patterns and what could be best. Writing music down in certain programs and sending it across so we don’t record every riff we do, but rather tap it. In Guitar Pro we can change up the tempos, it’s pretty much the stuff that ends up on the record in the end. Dead Rhetoric: Who do you look to for inspiration as far as your guitar playing? Do you think your abilities have changed over the years? Castev…
…being in a metal band these days is a hobby. It has to be aside from a full-time job. More bands need to admit they have full-time jobs. Dead Rhetoric: What would be surprising to learn about Ol the person when he’s off stage and away from music as a person – and what do you think you need to work on and improve in your life over the next few years? Drake: I think I’m quite laid back. My music tastes aren’t probably what people would expect them t…
…ide of the album, are there any plans for other things be it online or what-have-you? Sweetnam: If you are referencing a live stream concert, that’s one thing we have kind of toyed with a little bit back and forth. I think we have kind of agreed as a band that we are going to put all our energy into making some music videos and some cool live streams and content, but we want to save the live show for the real thing. I think it’s a little bit of a…
…the beginning and you have a melody that can be easily remembered, it’s a service for the listener to re-enter the world of Poverty’s No Crime. I thought that’s what “Hollow Phrases” offers perfectly. Not so complicated or a very long song, it starts with an easy melody, and it was a hello we are back song. The next song we will release before the actual album release will be the instrumental song. Maybe to attract some listeners into post-rock a…
…through proper understanding of dynamics, especially in terms of the track-to-track flow and how they use circular measures for retention purposes even in the longer, seven-minute plus cuts such as “Valley of Darkness” and “Prophecies”. Guitarists Sergio Girón and Srdjan Bilic are a formidable axe team – churning out solid melodic power chords, supplementary clean accents, and fluid, emotive lead parts that possess your ears and engage for deeper…
…adly Diminuendo” or the more beautifully poignant and breathtaking “My Down-to-Earth Lover.” The Cause of Shipwreck is a crowning moment for Blackbriar. As their first full-length, it personifies everything that the band has stood for to date and augments their strengths. They have found an inventive sound that is uniquely theirs and seem to know exactly how to move forward without losing what made them special in the first place. An enchanting an…
…really emphasized from the 1990’s forward as “Soul Redemption” and the mid-paced follow-up “Never Give Up” illustrate, the latter containing some solid uplifting vocal melodies from Ivan Adami along with background choir support for the chorus and killer guitar harmonies weaving in and out of the arrangement from Riccardo Toni. Three shorter interludes appear at the start, midway point and conclusion – “The Dying Light” the best of the bunch, fea…
…nion is worse because it’s a disease that is spreading, fueled by the right-wing media. And right-wing politics. These issues are all prevalent in my mind. These ideals are festering in the background, and we’ve all been fairly isolated for the past twelve months, waiting in our own social network bubbles, our own echo chambers. We tend to engage with people with similar mindsets, our own bubble of people that agree with what we are saying. This i…
…ber switches, once we got Ben [Paramore] in 2017, it really brought up our fast-paced punk side. As soon as we added Crow [Lotus], we really became the force that we are right now. Dead Rhetoric: You mentioned a few bands already, what are some of the biggest ‘90s/’00s hardcore and punk bands that were influential to Capra’s sound? Harper: Probably Converge and Every Time I Die are the top two that really influenced me on guitar. But you have othe…
…e bit with this band. We are really dependent on the fans buying our music online, supporting us, buying t-shirts – and the world is a strange place right now for bands that used to be very active and for concerts in general. It will be one of the most challenging things ahead of us in the next year and maybe years. Dead Rhetoric: Name three albums that have had the most impact on your views and impressions for heavy metal – and what was the best…
…in person for nearly a year, and we were working on this album completely online. We were exchanging ideas and conversations on messaging. We haven’t met in the recording studio, and this is the first time in history that we recorded a Crystal Viper album without seeing each other. Everybody recorded their tracks in their own home studio. And then when all the tracks were done, we sent them to Cederick Forsberg who is our new drummer, he did the…
…that we are having a good time. We aren’t the guys who are wearing black t-shirts, work boots, and just mean-mugging in every picture. We are the guys who are smiling onstage – we are happy. We are all best friends so we are having the time of our lives when we are doing anything that involves this band. That said, any time we have a video, we want to get a laugh or at least crack a smile from someone. Dead Rhetoric: I’m sure that you have heard…
…the time. I was working, gigging on the weekends, and recording. I was full-on all the time. With that album especially, I had to do a lot of stuff at night – going to the studio and recording vocals. One day I came into rehearsal and I was singing and my voice just gave out. It was startling. I went a long time trying to get over that. I went to doctors and had steroid inhalers and all of that. So it took years to get everything back. I know you…
…ned for this year? van Giersbergen: I am planning and working on something online-ish around the release of the album. Something beautiful to go online with. Other than that, I will continue playing my set and rehearsing until I can go out and play. I hope we can do something live in the summer – something outdoors. But proper touring and traveling, and traveling to the US – that will be 2022. But there are tours, in pencil, in the agenda. We are…
…out of control. It’s not only the price, but that you have to fill in the online form that takes forever. Then you have to go an embassy, and so I lose like two days because I have to fly to one. It’s really a huge effort before you can even get to the US. If you have to pay a huge amount of money for that, at a certain point it’s like – c’mon, it has to be worth it or you can’t keep doing it anymore. Dead Rhetoric: I don’t want to sidetrack too…
