…t and we were arranging and writing songs there. Nowadays, we do this 100% online. I send him the idea, and he builds up an arrangement and then we finish everything. This is new, that’s the only big difference. Dead Rhetoric: Do you believe those early rehearsals helps for the comfort of now recording separately? Neuhauser: There are always pros and cons. The pros of rehearsals, you have this spontaneous possibility to feel something together. Yo…
…ps that don’t know how to communicate better. At least that’s how it seems online. If you go to the rural part of Finland, then you realize you have more in common with other people even if they like a different political party. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be solved. Hentunen: Even though social media plays such a huge role these days, it’s not the whole reality. Go outside and speak with real people, you will notice that we are more alike…
…y fond of this style. I think it turned out really cool. We found this guy online; he had a cool portfolio. We were really happy we were able to come to good terms to have him work with us. Dead Rhetoric: The video for the title track has received over a quarter of a million views now on YouTube. How did you feel the video shoot went, as the darker lighting sequences around the band performances definitely give the visuals an atmospheric vibe? Hol…
…general, almost visceral reaction to these songs, and reading the comments online was pretty special. Gruesome is also the kind of band that a lot of people have come up and said, thank you for keeping this sound alive. Gruesome has been very rewarding. Playing with Malevolent Creation was great. I toured with Brett a bunch of times. I’m very humbled, grateful, and fortunate that I have been able to do the things I’ve been able to do. Hard work to…
…again. We had been sitting at home for nearly two years. We didn’t do much online, we had the album done but we didn’t want to release it because it didn’t make sense. We wouldn’t have been able to promote it properly, it would have just died on its own. I would rather be out there playing live. I hope we can make the most of these months and years, put it behind us. We have a beautiful tour lined up and we are ready to roll. I can’t complain, you…
…king for a band but 18 when Asylum started. I had met our original drummer online. He came to jam, and the band started soon after. At the time, I was in a thrash band called Servant – it didn’t go anywhere or do anything so what became Asylum was kind of like a side project. Servant broke up and that’s when I knew I wanted Asylum to be a thrash band. I didn’t have any sort of qualities in mind, I just wanted to play guitar! Our sound developed mo…
…the second album Descending into Xibalba released in 2020 – then play some online festivals with artists like Jinjer, Shokran, and Arise in Stability while reintroducing people to the latest version of that debut album. Killing for Pleasure Forever contains thirteen of those original fifteen tracks, updated with better production values plus the insight/knowledge of the musicians on hand – the current rhythm section getting a fresh crack at these…
…olution of people learning the craft and the access to so much information online? What are specific traits or tools that you hope these players work upon that will be beneficial in the long run? Carstairs: I’ve been teaching for ten years. There are definitely times where I feel like my playing has gone stagnant, and you have to take the time to be critical about what you do to be better. When you don’t have a private teacher… I’ve had many priva…
Just before online media consumption usurped the old-fashioned in print marketplace, this scribe used to be a co-editor for a few years in the late 90’s/early 2000’s at Snakepit magazine. Unearthing a lot of bands across metal’s history that at the time were long forgotten – or had broken up – Toxik would be one of those acts we covered, interviewing over a few issues drummer Tad Leger, singer Mike Sanders, and guitarist Josh Christian. Pioneers…
…Van Halen. That is where it is. When you have the delivery mechanism with online media, social platforms, Spotify, the market has opened up. I believe our asset is our willingness to stay the course. Our ability to grow and delivery new content that is relevant. To stay on the edge of what is accessible without going too extreme, but able to draw from the influences of our past and stay relevant with the new kids growing up. We are older and matu…
…orks out really great. Dead Rhetoric: In another interview I read of yours online, you mention a love of Ronnie James Dio and that Rainbow Rising is your all-time favorite album. What songs or memories do you have relating to that album, and did you ever get the chance to witness Ronnie live either in his solo band or with Black Sabbath before his passing? Hallström: Yes. My first connection with the album Rainbow Rising I was eleven years old, an…
…rries for a week or two. I like to do full packages, I won’t lie I also do online mixing and if that’s all that is in their budget, and if you live in a different country, it’s a great way to do stuff. I prefer to do a front to back production, then you really see the vision. The decision about what the final drum sound is going to be on an album, should be there if that vision needs to be there when you are tuning that drum kit, start mic’ing it…
…the shows, we want to share our music with people and not just send it out online. That is one thing, and we are two singers. We work with that in mind from the start, from scratch. When we start writing a song, we know there has to be two vocals, two characters more or less sometimes. Things should happen, not just Michele sings verse A, I sing verse B. We want to make it a little bit more interesting, we are two melodic vocalists. And we started…
…iness how small the world is. Dead Rhetoric: In a previous interview I saw online, you mentioned that Ronnie James Dio is your number one hero – tell us about your favorite memories regarding this man, his influence on you as a vocalist, and did you ever get the chance to meet him or see him live in concert over the years? Carpenter: Yes, of course he’s my hero. I remember when I was a kid, I heard “Rainbow in the Dark” on the radio. There was som…
…aboration but as far as the artwork goes, that’s mainly her. I saw her art online, and what really captured me was her collage work. She does paintings too. Southern: We are trying to do something different with every album cover. The first one, we took a photo, and we made this mound of skulls. The second album let’s do a collage. It’s really popular artwork right now and can be creepy. We wanted a symbol that would stand away from our logo. Joe…
…have someone managing that for us, so we have a more professional presence online rather than me every once in a while, taking a picture and sending it online. Those are the bigger challenges – how to deal with social media, how to build your brand locally, getting booked on better shows and better tours. We are finalizing a deal now with a management and booking company who will hopefully resolve that for us moving forward. Dead Rhetoric: If you…
…nd. These days, you can do things yourself, and promote your music through online media. The problem is every band that just started out yesterday can record an album and throw it out there, even if it’s shit (laughs). The good bands don’t get the attention they need to survive. From an artistic point of view, it’s good that you can throw it out. Financially, maybe not so much because you drown in the masses. Every time has it’s ups and downsides….
…de of the world. I tooled around online, this thing popped up already done online for the first album. We got the rights to use it, I liked having a character. Spirits of Fire to me is like my modern Doctor Butcher. A metal band I get to have fun with. This fire spirit is like my Eddie – I have this thing online where I am trying to get people to name him and animate him. With the new record, Frontiers had the art done and married that. We’ve got…
…e road. That’s why at the end of 2020 we went and started doing live shows online. At least we could get together in a studio, even though we had to be two meters apart. We have to keep in mind it’s always great to go on the road with a new album. Dead Rhetoric: How does a veteran band like Voivod handle the ever-changing music industry landscape – where things have moved from physical sales/mediums to more of an internet-based, streaming/digital…
…ey talked/shared experiences with us. We also won a 2013 worldwide contest online too. Dead Rhetoric: With that period of time, what can you say about how the band’s sound has changed in that span? Cruz: It’s changed a lot, but we have always kept the identity. My vocals are the same [laughs]. So the identity is there, but we have changed. I had a tumor on my thyroid that caused me to have surgery and we had to stop playing for while and I needed…
…for ideal merchandise possibilities… Porsteinsson: Atli found James’ stuff online. He had done a lot of fantasy artwork and commissions, and his style was perfect for what we wanted. If I remember correctly the only criteria we gave him was that it has to be huge, it had to have all the members of the band somewhere, and it had to have a dragon. Dead Rhetoric: What characteristics or traits do you believe are important to convey with the lyrics, m…
…son for the lineup change is I wanted to move Eternity’s End from being an online project to a touring band, getting together and playing live shows together. Apart from the fact that I have known these guys for a long time, there is a good chemistry, there is also the logistical thing with location and we all live closer to each other. Linus is one of the best bassists I’ve ever worked with, he is a professional and can play in any style I ask hi…
…nice time, that’s really important to us! Dead Rhetoric: I saw one of the online hangouts yesterday, and I have to ask: you did a workout for a portion of the hangout. What inspired you do to it that way? Shepherd: I think just doing something different. It’s important. Something that has always been prevalent in the rock and metal world is that, “Sex, drugs, and alcohol – yeah!” But nowadays, it really is more, “Gym, sweat, and protein shakes [l…
…n Europe. We had time to think, to focus on what we were doing, to discuss online the shape and the sound that this album needed. Which is something when you are constantly on the road, constantly playing or away, you don’t have this gift. We managed to take the dark side of the pandemic into a positive side for our music. There are some songs that can be heard lyric-wise on this record like “You Only Live Once” and “I the Loneliness” which are de…
…like this will crash. Dead Rhetoric: You mentioned in a previous interview online that you handed the music part of the songwriting over to guitarist Fredrik Folkare where you focus on the lyrics. Was that significant in terms of trust, to pass that over as his consistency when it comes to the songwriting has been amazing over the last few albums? Hedlund: Thank you. And this happened at the end of the 1990’s. I just felt that the songs that he ca…
…estivals in Sweden and Japan. For the first album, we only knew each other online. We had never been in the same room. This time we had, although this album was done apart, we had much more time and experience together. As far as the songwriting goes, the singer change was instrumental because I wrote whatever I wanted this time. Without any fear, this is in my opinion the perfect album. There’s not one thing I would want to change. I never though…
…rowing. I know there is a narrative that its not doing so well, but that’s online in comparison to pop or country music. When we are talking about tickets, there are just as many people going to see Metallica or System of a Down as there are going to see pop or country artists you can name. The mainstream media is probably tied to the mainstream music industry, and mainstream music doesn’t make too much money off of metal. The metal musicians in t…
…Rhetoric: How do you handle the criticism that people level on your music? Online the only criticism I’ve heard about the new record is in regards to the production and the guitar tones? Steinhauer: This is also a bit weird because here in my studio it sounds great. I gave it to the whole band, they said it sounded great. I didn’t want to do the production, I wanted to work with Andy Sneap or Juan Urteaga, I am in contact with Juan. If you don’t h…
…be completely true and may be skewed in a certain way. It’s so easy to go online and watch something or read something, whatever it may be, and it’s not researched properly, or it has an agenda. People become very polarized and think everyone is right rather than worrying about if it’s the truth or not. I haven’t seen this my entire life, it’s almost as if certain opinions take on a cult-like mentality online. People are willing to listen to info…
…irection – metal has a very finicky side to it. Especially when looking at online comments. Psarakis: Oh for sure. I learned a long time ago to just ignore the comments. 9 out of 10 times they are off-base. They are just someone’s initial impression. It’s totally normal. I don’t expect someone to watch our video for the first time or listen to our song for the first time, and totally understand it. Our music is not cookie-cutter, radio-friendly. I…
