Dub Trio (Mean Street - February 2008)

This interview ran in the February 2008 issue of Mean Street. Check it out.

Stir of Echo

While the members of Dub Trio keep pretty busy with their own elaborate instrumental dub-metal jams, the Brooklyn outfit paid its dues playing for other people

We’re all professional musicians by trade,” says drummer Joe Tomino. “We’ve all spent some time at music school. We’re versed to play multiple styles. We’ve all researched different genres, so we’re capable musicians on that level. As far as what we played in before Dub Trio, [bassist] Stu [Brooks] and [guitarist] Dave [Holmes] played a lot of funk and more groove-oriented stuff. We spent a good amount of time playing the drum-and-bass genre when that was big. Myself, I played a lot of straight-ahead jazz and more avante-garde and free styles.

”The Trio began in 2000 as a group of session players for larger established acts. Tomino was a touring drummer for the Fugees. Brooks recorded with 50 Cent and Mobb Deep, while Holmes recorded with Mos Def and Common.

The band released Exploring the Dangers Of in ’05. Former Faith No More frontman and Fantomas/Tomahawk mastermind Mike Patton guested on the song “We’re Not Alone” on the Trio’s 2006 follow-up, New Heavy. Until recently, that was the group’s only tune featuring vocals.

Patton also recruited the trio to tour with him as his live band for his Peeping Tom rock/hip-hop project. Dub Trio’s latest, Another Sound is Dying, is the group’s first for Patton’s (who guested once again on a track) Ipecac Recordings. This album continues the Trio’s weakness for melding noisy punk-metal and effects-laden dub reggae in the tradition of King Tubby.

Dub Trio hit the road recently supporting Helmet and Clutch. Even though it’s the musical oddball on the tour, the group was surprised by audiences’ positive reactions.

“Each tour is a little different,” Tomino says. “We tour with a lot of different bands genre-wise. Each genre or scene relates differently to it. People that go to a Clutch show…they’re more musically inclined. They appreciate the jams more. Clutch has a lot of musical integrity as a band. They were open to what we were doing. A lot of them knew reggae and dub. We were in this one place…total biker kinda dude…came up to me, he was like, ‘Dude, I appreciate what you’re doing. I hear the King Tubby in there.’ He knew who King Tubby was. That blew my mind!”

On the web: dubtrio.com

Bullet For My Valentine (Mean Street - February 2008)

This ran in the February 2008 issue of Mean Street.

Big Shots

Though Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine enjoyed success in their native stomping grounds — Kerrang! named them Best British Newcomer in 2005 while Metal Hammer voted them Best British Band the following year — the band’s initial touring across the Pond was no sweetheart deal.

Two years ago, B4MV was kicked off its opening act slot for Rob Zombie’s North American tour after frontman/guitarist Matthew Tuck grew frustrated with pricey T-shirt prices and a lack of sound checks and posted some negative comments about the headliner on his band’s message board. Fortunately, the group rebounded from this misstep and with a new album, Scream Aim Fire, and a new tour, the fourth annual Rockstar Taste of Chaos, the group is locked and loaded.

“We can’t wait,” Tuck declares. “It’s a perfect kind of first tour for our album campaign. There’s no pressure. It’s not really our tour. We’ll have a shorter set than our headline tour. It’s going to be with two amazing bands that we know personally. There’s no weirdness or breaking ice moments. It’s straight into everyone having a good time and rocking out.”

Rocking out is what the band’s been doing since its 2006 U.S. debut The Poison, which has sold nearly 350,000 copies in the U.S. alone. The new record takes the quartet’s technical guitar sound up a notch. The guitars are beefed up, but there’s also a focus on melodic overtones. Songs like “Eye of the Storm” feature lots of melodic thrash parts, while “Hearts Burst Into Fire” explores classic hard rock song structures.

B4MV released Scream Aim Fire’s titular track as a single prior to the record’s Jan. 29 release to give fans a preview. The song was written in a recording studio in London during some downtime, Tuck says.

“It’s one of those 10-minute songs,” he explains. “I was sitting down, jamming some riffs. When this one riff came up, it was one of those cool moments. Some songs take a year to take life. This one took 10 minutes. As soon as we wrote this, we rushed into the live room, showed everyone the basic structures and the parts. We thrashed out for an hour until we had the basic song. The next day we recorded it and what you hear is nothing really changed from the demo version.”

Tuck’s vocals on Scream Aim Fire sound stronger than ever. His melodic side shines through as well as his screaming. Unfortunately, throat problems he suffered while on tour in 2006 nearly cost him his ability to sing

It’s been in the last year [that] I’ve had all this sh*t with my throat,” he says. “I’ve been taking proper lessons. I’m so pissed off that I didn’t do it [before]. It’s all a learning process and a fresh year. We sound better than ever.”“It wasn’t a big operation,” Tuck adds. “It was a tonsillectomy. It was because I’m a singer. It took me a long time to get [my voice] back. We had a show in Nottingham at Rock City on New Year’s Eve. We were rehearsing for a few days before that. On December 29th, [my voice] came back. So, I’m in an amazing place mentally right now.”

On the web: bulletformyvalentine1.com

The Autumn Offering (Blistering.com)

Here's my The Autumn Offering interview at Blistering.com. Check it out.

Bands face a crossing point within their careers, and discover when changes are necessary to elevate to the next level. The Autumn Offering did that and made their strongest release to date, Fear Will Cast No Shadow.

Over the past nine years, the Autumn Offering introduced their brand of modern thrash metal through constant touring. This Dayton Beach, Florida quartet did self-booked tours in 2003 before befriending Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta. Jasta released the band’s debut CD Relevations of the Unsung through Stillborn Records (later re-released by Victory Records).

After the release of 2006’s Embrace the Gutter, the band made major lineup changes. Known for constant lineup problems, they made their biggest change by recruiting former Hell Within vocalist Matt McChesney in May 2007. He brought a wider range of vocal styles, which the band lacked in the past. Plus the band experimented with more thrash metal sounds than before.

Since the interview, the band also recruited new drummer Brian Sculley. McChesney spoke to Blistering.com about the new record, the newly found spirit within the Autumn Offering, and reaching new fans on the road.

Blistering.com: How is the Dope tour going?

Matt McChesney: It’s cool. It’s a little different as far as the crowd goes. But we had some good responses and won over fans.

Blistering.com: How long have you officially been in the band?

MM: Since May (2007).

Blistering.com: How did you get involved with the Autumn Offering? You were in another band.

MM: I was in a band called Hell Within. We did a couple of tours with the Autumn Offering. So I knew them pretty well. They fired their singer and the last tour we did, they were hinting to me…I did “Cowboys From Hell” with them every night. They were hinting at it. The direction that Hell Within was going was not what I wanted to do. So it was a pretty easy choice.

Blistering.com: Did you originally join to help The Autumn Offering and also stay in Hell Within, or did you completely leave Hell Within?

MM:I quit to join full time, but I kind of had an understanding that with Hell Within that I would try to pull off both, but it became clear that it wasn’t going to work. I had to make a choice. I chose to go with the Autumn Offering.

Blistering.com: You brought a new dynamic that was not there before. How much of the songwriting were you involved with? Were you there from the beginning?

MM: Basically, what happened was that Tommy [Church], the lead guitar player, started sending me demos in last April or early May after their tour was done. I had started writing stuff. Me, Tommy and Matt [Johnson, guitar] basically wrote the whole record. We got down to [Jason] Suecof in Orlando, moved a bunch guitar parts around, and wrote a bunch of different drum and bass parts. The record was pretty complete by the time we got there. We changed some vocal stuff. It’s the normal stuff you do in the studio. We worked pretty well in the studio. We had the same vision for the record. They wanted a lot of singing, since they never had that before. They didn’t want to be boxed in with the band that has screaming the whole time. They didn’t want to do that any more.

Blistering.com: What was the biggest difference between how Hell Within operated and how The Autumn Offering works?

MM: I wrote a lot of the music and the lyrics in Hell Within. It became harder to convey the ideas I wanted. On the last record with Hell Within [Shadows of Vanity], which I thought was a great record, but I had to fight almost for the screaming parts. They didn’t want screaming at all any more. They wanted almost like what Avenged Sevenfold did. I didn’t want to do that. I want the heaviness. If you hear the Autumn Offering record, there’s a lot of singing on it, but at the same time, there’s a lot of songs that don’t have any singing on it at all. I didn’t want to specifically go in one direction and alienate half our fanbase by giving them a completely different record. What happened was some of the fans grew with it, and some of them were like ‘this is a completely different band.’

Blistering.com: How does your lyrical approach differ from the previous vocalist’s?

MM:I know their thing before, which I wanted to get away from, was the whole white trash thrash thing on Embrace the Gutter. My lyrics come from poems. I think the stuff I write is a lot heavier than anything they’ve done before. There’s probably stuff that’s a lot lighter. It’s all ends of the spectrum. Whereas their last vocalist – I don’t even know what he wrote. I don’t know if he wrote the lyrics at all. They were decent but it was straight up to a point. I tried to bring in my thing. I think it works pretty well. I took the best of what I did in Hell Within with the best of what they had to offer in their band, and combined them both.

Blistering.com: Are you on good terms with the Hell Within guys?

MM: Yeah. I went to Tony [Zimmerman, guitars]’s wedding. I mean, there’s a little weirdness, but I played with those guys for six years. So we’re basically cool. They understood my decision. I don’t think they liked the way I went about doing it. They understood at the end of the day.

Blistering.com: Hell Within didn’t tour as much as the Autumn Offering, did they?

MM: Not as much. We definitely toured quite a bit. The year our first record came out, we toured a lot. I never toured on the new Hell Within record. I left the band the month the record came out.

Blistering.com: Tell me about your shows with Dope. Is it quite different than what you’re used to? How was the response?

MM:I could tell you that we were the only band every night that had people pitting and moshing. I don’t know if that was just our fans. I know we won over a lot of their fans. They would come over to our merch table. They weren’t expecting someone like us. They predominately listen to that industrial kind metal, like Static X. They’ve probably heard bands like us and maybe never seen us live. So we probably moved some of them over to our side. I don’t think they’ll abandon their Hot Topic roots. It’s cool they’re into what we’re doing. I think people come as long as it’s heavy and it grooves. I think there were some of their fans that didn’t like us. They were there to see Dope. But that’s fine.

Blistering.com: I noticed on Fear Will Cast No Shadow, the music has progressed into more of a modern thrash sound. Was that a conscious thing?

MM: Yeah, it was a conscious thing. There are so many bands and you want to do something that separates yourself from the herd. I don’t think we did anything super groundbreaking. But I think we wrote 11 really good songs, especially in an old Bay Area thrash thing. There are a lot of harmonies and At The Gates guitar work that people seem to be big on. There are a lot of solos. We didn’t want to do the one note and the breakdown stuff. It’s so played out. I don’t think the band ever was too big on that. There were breakdowns in the past. There are some killer ones on this record. The thing is that they belong and fit the songs.

Blistering.com: How much of the old material are you still doing in your current set list?

MM: We had about 35 minute sets on tour. We did “Embrace the Gutter,” “Ghost,” and “Revelations”…we did three old songs.

Blistering.com: Is it weird singing the older songs?

MM: Oh no. I heard those songs for two tours straight every night! I didn’t really need to look at the words. It was easy. It was all heavy stuff, which was easy for me to pull off. I actually like doing the older songs. I try to put a different spin on them. I’ll change a few of the screaming parts.

Blistering.com: Anything else you want to plug?

MM: We have a video on Headbanger’s Ball. Please give the record a shot. The reviews so far are either the people absolutely love it, which is how I would want it. I wouldn’t want middle ground, like ‘it’s OK…’ It’s either the best record of the year or the worst pile of crap I’ve heard. Usually the negative feedback comes from those startup websites that no one cares about anyways.

One thing I’ll say that bothered me with the Internet thing. You know the guitar player from Hawthorne Heights (Casey Calvert) and how he died. I went on Lambgoat… and it’s all these bastards and ‘I’m glad he’s dead’ and this and that. The thing with the internet is that any moron has a voice now and can say whatever they want. I can’t imagine saying something like that about someone that died so tragically. I can’t stand it. It sucks. It’s not like the old days when Metallica was coming up.

http://www.theautumnoffering.com/

The Used - Lies For The Liars (Mean Street June 2007)

Here's a review I did for the June 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

THE USED

Lies For the Liars

(Reprise)

“Exciting” and “high energy” are two terms that spring to mind to desribe this album’s lead-in tracks. The Used simply let loose and go for broke on Lies For the Liars, experimenting with a variety of styles and creating some impressive tunes. Unlike many bands that reach creative overload and get repetitive, The Used avoid this and instead made a record that is enjoyable from beginning to end. “The Ripper” experiments with weird vocal effects and near-ADD levels of energy, while “Pretty Handsome Awkward’ has the makings of a memorable chorus for a hit song. “The Bird and The Worm” even incorporates orchestral parts that fuse a dark tune with catchy choruses. Lies for the Liars is the record that is the end result of a gradual building process and could be the surprise hit very few were expecting.

Grade: A-

Pelican - City of Echoes

Here's a Pelican review from the June 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

PELICAN

City of Echoes

(Hydrahead)

Pelican first got its notice making some cool instrumental music that bordered on ’70 prog rock and went against the grain of a song-structured medium. On City of Echoes, the band literally sounds like it’s created an instrumental jam session, where its unique bluesy-meets-quasi-’70s sound has taken a life of its own and sounds bigger than ever. Songs like the titular track and “Spaceship Broken – Parts Needed” feature a familiar driving guitar sound that mixes ‘70s rock, blues and prog-rock styles and fuses them into great jam music. “Bliss in Concrete” throws down some mean double-bass with a hint of Neurosis-esque moodiness, while “Winds With Hands” is an acoustic tune that is played from a slightly different perspective. By far, this is Pelican doing their thing and raising the bar on what music against the grain should be about.

Grade: A

Trivium

Here's a Trivium interview for the January 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

METAL MILITIA

Working Trivium’s touring around the recording of its latest thrash-metal release, The Crusade, wasn’t easy, drummer Travis Smith says. But it was all worth it.

“That was a new experience, going out and playing shows and writing a record at the same time,” he says. “It was a lot on our plate, but we’re one of those bands that can handle that. I think the more pressure’s added onto us, the better we perform.”

This young band first made a major dent in the heavy music world with its 2005 Roadrunner debut and second overall release, Ascendency. And now, this Florida-based foursome — which also includes vocalist/guitarist Matt Heafy (who was 19 years old when the band was signed) — counts thrash icons Metallica as best buddies and is currently busy supporting NWOBHM legends Iron Maiden on a worldwide tour.

The Crusade, shows growth in the band’s songwriting and musicianship. Not bad considering the record was completed in roughly two months’ time and many of the songs were written while on tour.

“We created a crusade on the road,” Smith says.

Heafy noticeably worked on his vocals, focusing on more singing and less screaming.

“We got sick of the screaming thing going on,” Smith says. “It’s so overdone."

Trivium is noted for bringing back the classic technical guitar style with lots of solos. Compared to the previous disc, the band worked to pile on the soloing and bring back a classic heavy metal element to their sound.

“We’ve always been big on the guitar solos,” Smith says. “All of our influences have guitar solos. It came at this point in time in music where the art of guitar solos got lost. Nobody really gave a shit. It’s so epic. Guitar solos are the shit.”

Comparisons to Ride the Lightning-era Metallica are often mentioned when describing Trivium’s sound, but considering band members are twentysomethings, their influences evidently shine beyond their ages.

“I have an older brother, so that helped out,” explains Smith about his influences. “I’d raid his collection of music. That was my gateway into it…plus hearing Metallica, Pantera, Testament and Slayer. Once I got introduced to it, I fell in love and found everything I could.”

On the web: trivium.org

Sparta

Here's an interview I did with Jim Ward of Sparta for the December 2006 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

Three’s company

They say good things come in threes and Sparta frontman Jim Ward is a believer in this adage. Considering it a good luck charm of sorts, he named his band’s newestalbum Threes.

“All good things come in threes, and being this is our third album, it worked out,” Ward says. “We went through a lot during those years and a lot of this record is talking about what we went through and overcoming these things.”

Threes became an album that represents the full load of ups and downs band members went through during the past few years. They locked themselves inside of a warehouse and wrote songs that expressed every emotion they had.

“It was really a stream of emotions,” Ward says. “I was coming up with some of the ideas to build off that. The other guys were feeding off of those ideas. Now having Keeley [Davis, guitarist and formerly of Engine Down] in the band, he also contributes. The way I like to do things is as a band. It always changes. I’m very blessed to have him as part of this band.”

Sparta focused a lot of the songwriting on Threes, and one of the highlights became the anthemic “Taking Back Control.”

“Maybe anthem’s not the right word, but I definitely wanted a call to arms-type of song,” Ward says. “Not anything in specific. It’s not just about politics, but about the state of the world. I think we are not doing enough in the world.”

Ward, drummer Tony Hajjar and bassist/guitarist Paul Hinojos were all in At the Drive-In until that band effectively broke up in 2001. Immediately, the trio formed Sparta (the remaining ATDI members went on to form the Mars Volta) and worked hard to be heard.

Wiretap Scars (DreamWorks) and Porcelain (Geffen), their first two full-length releases, were acclaimed albums that built up a fan base. But business and internal problems ended a tour prematurely, nearly prompting the end to Ward’s music career.

He particularly describes this dark, Porcelain-era period as “working twice as hard to get half as far.”

“I never look back on records,” Ward says. “I didn’t have the passion to play when I left that tour. I didn’t want to be famous. I didn’t want to go through it to be an entertainer, because I’m not just an entertainer. I’m a musician and part of that is playing in front of people that love it. But I don’t put on a smile and go on stage and dance around. That’s not my deal.”This also led to Hinojos’ defection to join his former bandmates in Mars Volta.

“You know what? With the way things were, I don’t blame him for leaving,” Ward says. “I wouldn’t stay either. With that opening [in Mars Volta], he wanted to leave. I have absolutely zero problems with it. That was the last thing on my mind. The first thing on my mind was I didn’t want to play music any more. Honestly, I didn’t care.”

Fortunately, Ward regained his drive to make music and with new axe-man Keeley and a new label (Hollywood) as a morale booster, Threes was written and recorded. As a bonus, the band included a DVD with Threes, but one intended to be meaningful and not just consist of garden-variety backstage band antics.

The DVD is called Eme Nakia (“Mother Nakia” in Arabic) and is based on Hajjar’s life escaping war-torn Lebanon and growing up in El Paso with a mother dying of cancer and an older brother raising the family.

“We wanted something as a bonus disc that was different,” Ward says. “I talked to Tony [Hajjar] about making a film part of this album [Threes]. I mentioned about doing it on his life and we went from there. I knew some of his story. His mother died when he was 15, and his older brother raised him and his sister. He lived a tough life and now he has his own family.”

On the web: spartamusic.com

The_Network - This Is Your Pig's Portrait

This review ran in the March 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

THE_NETWORK

This Is_Your Pig's Portrait

(Metal Blade/Black Market Activities)

Outside of the melodic metalcore hybrids acts that the New England area is now known for, a newly-discovered string of edgier, abrasive acts are rearing their ugly heads. Basing their entire disc on a socio-political theme, New Hampshire’s The Network created an album that fits well with their interpretation of the world. Following the models of mid-‘90s-era hardcore plus some grindcore and death metal, The_Network does get their points across and never lets up. There’s tons of wild riffing all over the place, along with fast, punk-style drumming. Vocalist Scott White leads the charge with his throaty barking throughout the disc. At odd times, The_Network throws in an acoustic part to the intro of “Prison Letters,” before launching their grind assault. Not for the faint of heart.

Grade: A-

Kittie - Funeral For Yesterday

This review was published in the March 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

KITTIE
Funeral For Yesterday
(Merovingian)

The world got to watch the Lander sisters grow up throughout the 10-plus years within Kittie. Their fourth full-length brings in new elements, such as vocalist Morgan Lander’s clean vocals rather than the gut-wrenching shrieks that soured previous releases. Her new vocals help elevate their overall sound and make it their most ear-friendly. Musically, the band has shown growth, expanding its musical range to covering more rock-oriented sounds (“Funeral For Yesterday,” “Everything That Could Have Been”), while still sticking to more similar Killswitch Engage/Trivium-like melodic thrash structures on others (“Breathe,” “This Too Shall Pass”). But for those who liked the edgier vocals, there’s still some of that here (“Flower of Flesh and Blood”). This is their most mature release to date, and they have discovered their strengths. Hopefully the jokes of the past will finally end.

Grade: B+

ISIS

I spoke to Aaron Turner of ISIS for the March 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

Brutal Truth

Listening to a band like Isis, it takes more than simply listening to the music to gain a complete understanding of what they are about. Opening up for Tool doesn’t hurt either.

“The tour went better than I expected,” explains vocalist/guitarist Aaron Turner, referring to Isis’ support slot on Tool’s U.S. tour last year. “Once we started playing, I realized that the Tool fans are a lot brighter than I thought. It was probably not what they expected but we got to do our thing on stage every night.”

The band’s latest release, In the Absence of Truth, is on its way to becoming their biggest release to date.

Since 1997, Turner began Isis as an outlet to create art with friends that were unsatisfied with the projects each member was involved with at that time. Turner himself was an art student and needed an outlet for his creative side. He still does much of the graphic design work for the bands on his L.A.-based label, Hydra Head Records.

Prior to In the Absence of Truth, Isis issued a DVD called Clearing the Eye, which captured live clips from tours across the globe over the past five years.

“It is different playing the Troubadour in L.A. and, say, playing somewhere like New York or Boston, or even Australia,” Turner says. “There will be different people that act differently and their reactions will do that.”

“The Tokyo show was amazing since everyone there was silent through most of the set and we weren’t sure what to think,” he continues. “They were so quiet and polite, but they were just watching and seeing what we were doing on stage. It was a great show.”

And while the Isis fan base largely rests on its cult status, the band has been exposing itself to wider audiences.

For one, the tour with Tool (whose bassist Justin Chancellor is a fan of the band and contributed to the song “Altered Course” from Isis’ previous release, Panopticon) granted the band a lot of exposure. In ‘04, Isis was invited to perform a free show at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown L.A. as part of an art exhibit.

“It was the final week of the exhibit and we played in the middle of this art exhibit room,” says Turner. “Most of the people there probably were there for the art exhibit and had no idea who we were. We played the Oceanic album since we were promoting that release at the time. I think the people there liked it. I’m sure it was weird for them to see a band play in there that they didn’t know.”

The latest album was inspired by everything from mystic Islamic leader Hassan-I-Sabbah to stories such as Don Quixote, resulting in a melting pot of ideas.

“I think the big thing on this one is that we had more time to work on the record,” Turner says. “On the past releases, everyone was on different schedules and we couldn’t do all of the things we wanted to do. We wanted to work on song structures more and especially the vocals since it was something that wasn’t a real focus before.”

But despite this, Turner acknowledges that Isis will likely never become a mainstream band.

“One thing is that none of our songs are under seven minutes long, which does not work well for radio,” he says. “We can’t cut our songs down and we won’t. Plus within the songs, there is only about a minute’s worth of vocals in any of our songs. So vocals have never been a focal point.”

On the web: isistheband.com

Machine Head

Here's a Machine Head interview for the March 2007 issue of Mean Street Magazine.

Pitch Black

A rebirth is a way to describe what Machine Head experienced over the past few years. After originally parting ways with longtime label Roadrunner in 2003, they were faced with the reality of the band’s end. Fast forward to 2007 and following the metal press’ acclaim of their prior indie release, Through the Ashes of Empires, this Oakland-based thrash band’s latest release, The Blackening, hits with impact and signals a return to form and Roadrunner.

Machine Head, whose 1994 Roadrunner debut Burn My Eyes made a huge splash in metal circles, refocused its creativity, frontman-guitarist Robert Flynn says.

“The biggest thing for us mentality-wise was that with Through the Ashes being as big a success as it was, with all eyes on us now, we can’t play it safe,” he says. “Now is not the time to play it safe. Now we have to take the biggest risk ever taken.”

Machine Head first arose during the early ‘90s, bridging the Bay Area thrash style of Testament and Exodus with the brutal punch of Vulgar Display of Power-era Pantera, eventually becoming underground metal heroes. And though the band’s critical and commercial success waned during the late ‘90s rap-rock years, Flynn and Co. renewed their metal cred with the release of Through the Ashes. And with The Blackening, Machine Head is willing to take risks.

“There’s a very good chance that a lot of people may not get this record,” Flynn says. “A 10-and-a-half-minute song is a lot to ask of the average music listener. There were record company concerns and discussions about dividing songs in two. It doesn’t feel like 10 minutes. It’s an exciting, fun 10 minutes, where you don’t know what’s around the corner.”

“The first four songs that we wrote all ended up being over seven minutes long,” he continues. “We were like, ‘Whoa! What are we doing here? Is this crazy here? Through the Ashes was a big success. Maybe we should stick with that formula?’ We stripped [the songs] back because they were a bit much. But as soon as we stripped them back, it wasn’t fun to play any more.”

In the end, The Blackening ended up with two 10-and-a-half-minute songs (“Clenching the Fists of Dissent,” “A Farewell to Arms”) and two nine-minute songs (“Halo,” “Wolves”).

“It takes you on a journey and it’s a fun journey to be on,” Flynn says. “But it’s not a hippie space jam, like Tool’s 10,000 Days noodling on a delay pedal for five-and-a-half minutes!”

Flynn also praised fellow guitarist Phil Demmel (a bandmate from the frontman’s prior thrash outfit, Vio-Lence) for shaping Blackening’s dual-guitar metal attack.

“The chemisty of us growing up together and learning to play together was able to come to fruition,” he says.

Song themes in Blackening include the band’s reaction to “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott’s murder (“Aesthetics of Hate”) to a rebuttal to name-calling (“Slanderous”). But songs also tackle the metal scene.

“In many ways, this record was a reaction to the metal that’s been going on for the past few years,” Flynn says. “So many bands are playing metal, writing lyrics about how their girlfriend left them…With everything going on in the world today, that’s the only thing you can write about? We were pissed off and, like on Burn My Eyes, there were a lot of lyrics about society and things going on around us. It’s an American point of view because we’re American and live in the Bay Area.”

On the web: machinehead1.com

Job For A Cowboy

Here's an interview with Job For A Cowboy I did for the July 2007 for Mean Street Magazine.

WILD WEST WARRIORS

For a young band — its members are barely out of high school — extreme metal outfit Job For a Cowboy is pretty ambitious about its hyper-speed riffing and apocalyptic imagery.

“We want to be an artistic band, like a Tool vibe,” says guitarist Ravi Bhadriraju. “Our videos won’t show us. It will show a few shots. It’s abstract and it’s weird, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”

What this Arizona band is getting, however, is a lot of attention in metal circles. Last month, Job For a Cowboy was named “Best Underground Band” by Metal Hammer, the U.K.’s second-largest rock and metal monthly. The band’s indie debut, Genesis, debuted at No. 54 on the Billboard 200, selling almost 13,000 copies its first week.

As metal’s “next big thing,” Job For a Cowboy scored a slew of slots on the festival circuit. The band recently returned from its first tour of Europe, with a stop at the rock/metal/punk Download Festival in England, which featured headliners My Chemical Romance, Iron Maiden and Linkin Park, plus Lamb of God, Slayer and Machine Head.

“Download Festival was awesome,” says Bhadriraju. “Getting to see all of these bands and hanging out there for three days — it was one of the most fun times ever. Going to a different country you’ve never been to before and having kids knowing your songs is an amazing feeling. We played a huge arena a few days ago. There were 8,000 people there. They’re all into it.”

“It was so surreal,” he adds. “I just stood there [and thought], ‘Wow, this is so unbelievable.’”

The band started out in 2003 in Glendale, Ariz., when vocalist Jonny Davy and Bhadriraju, while still in high school, began playing as a hobby. Eventually, after a few added members and subsequent lineup changes, Job For a Cowboy’s blastbeats and speed-freak guitars ended up on a demo and the band’s Doom EP. The band began booking local shows as well as gigs across the Southwest. A number of song clips on its MySpace page began generating interest. Metal Blade — which released Metallica’s first recordings and served as a home for Slayer back in the day — came knocking and a deal was inked. Genesis was released in May with Kerrang! , Guitar World and other rock publications feverishly singing the praises of the debut’s ferocious sound and technical intricacy.

But despite the goat skull and infernal imagery of Genesis’ cover art, the band isn’t sacrificing chickens to Old Scratch in its downtime.

“The cover is the Antichrist showing the end of the world,” explains Bhadriraju. “The whole thing is about the chip planted into the skin and it downloads your Social Security number. The Christian television here, you can hear them talking about it. [Vocalist] Jonny [Davy] was intrigued by this topic.”

Job For a Cowboy is slated for the Sounds of the Underground lineup that hits SoCal in August. It will be the band’s second outing on this tour, after playing three dates last year.

“We’re stoked to be a part of this tour,” the guitarist says. “We have a CD out now, so hopefully people know our newer songs.”

Considering band members graduated high school a year ago, Bhadriraju says he takes his family’s feelings into consideration. And he’s got a Plan B.

“My parents are completely supportive,” he says. “I love my parents to death. They’re the most supportive people in my whole life. They wear our shirts and they’re all about it. But I told them I would go back to school soon [if the band doesn’t work out] and make my parents proud again.”

On the web: facmetal.com

Blood For Blood

(Here's an older interview I did with Blood For Blood for Modern Fix Magazine. I think this is from 2004.)

Boston Hardcore doesn’t get much more legit than Blood For Blood. Dating back to their formation in 1995, the band has consistently pummeled the touring scene with their kick to the head meld of punk and hardcore. Many releases on Victory Records earned the band the respect they command, but the band has found a new home on Thorp Records for their 2004 release of “Serenity”. The music belts with such a ‘fuck you all’ intensity, it’s no wonder the band gets a good chunk of its fan mail from prisons. Braving a beat down, questions were posed to vocalist Buddha.

Blood For Blood has been going on for nine years and you’ve built upquite the following. What do you think it is that keeps the fans wanting more?

I think our lyrics really hit home with a lot of our fans. Musically we’ve been able to do what we want but still keep that Blood For Blood sound.

You released “Serenity” on Thorp Records as opposed to your past few releases on Victory. Why the label switch and what did Thorp offer that was different?

We had finished our contractual obligations with Victory. We wanted to go with a smaller label to insure that BFB would be a priority on the to do list. Thorp was there to offer what we were asking for.

A few years ago, Blood For Blood did stop for a brief period of time prior to the Sick Of It All US tour. What happened then and what made you reconsider to return to the scene?

We as a band have always had a problem communicating even to this day. We had a misunderstanding prior to “Outlaw Anthems” which caused us to not speak to each for over a year. We knew we still had to finish our Victory contract. So we decided to record “Outlaw Anthems” and then call it quits. Fortunately we getting together fixed all our stupid personal problems.

“Serenity” brings the trademark Blood For Blood sound but also mixes in more melodic parts than past material. Was this something that just happened or was this something you’ve been wanting to experiment with?

There are many things we’d like to incorporate into the sound of the band sooner or later. Melodic parts only came into play once we felt more comfortable with the quality our ability to do so.

Your bio mentions Johnny Cash quite a few times.

We always liked the honesty and rawness of his music.
Who were some of the other heroes the band have had over the years?Sheer Terror, SOIA, Slayer, and the Misfits all of the greats.

Is Boston hardcore anything like the days when Blood For Blood started?

Not really. It is much harder to get a good venue for any shows. The clubs around Boston won’t even let us play anymore because of our violent shows of the past.

How much has the scene grown since that time?The metalcore has seen has grown a lot in outside suburbs of Boston.

What are your thoughts of today’s modern hardcore/metalcore scene?I don’t really care for it. I’m sure the bands are all cool people but I don’t give a shit how cool you look. I have no problem with it being mainstream but keep it fresh not to be a carbon copy of the every screamy metalcore band out there.

Do you ever feel like Blood For Blood has been misunderstood over the years due to its brash style and the whole white trash aspect within the band’s persona? How much has changed over the years?

We’ve never felt that. We have had to put dummies in check though. There are people out there that hear we are angry and cater to a more rough crowd so they assume that we are not intelligent. It seems many people have given us a chance and they liked what they heard.

What are some of the reactions you receive when people discover Blood For Blood for the first time?

The common statement from our fans is this “Your music has gotten me through some tough times, thank you.” I feel avenged for all the negative press we’ve gotten in our home town of Boston.

Will Blood For Blood be touring?

There hasn’t been much mention of the band being on tour this year.Not this present time. We all have things in our personal lives that need to be taken care of at this time. i hope to be out by next year.

What does the future hold for the band as it nears ten years of Blood For Blood?

There are an endless amount of things we have not accomplished as band yet. We would like to get on a big Ozzfest type tour to get our music out there to people that otherwise would never had heard of us.

Final words?

Blood For Blood is still here and we are not going away anytime soon. Prepare yourself cause we’re coming.

http://www.bloodforblood.org/

2004 “Serenity” (Thorp)2002 “Outlaw Anthems” (Victory)2001 “Wasted Youth Brew) (Victory)1999 “Livin in Exile) (Victory)1998 “Revenge On Society” (Victory)