Steel for Brains

First things first.  Thrash metal is not dead, nor is its validity contingent upon the throngs of tweeters and anonymous commenters who wave their post [insert any genre here] badge proudly.  Thrash metal has given precisely zero fucks what the populace things, hence the very core of what makes thrash metal so perfect in a culture hellbent on tacking a cause onto every goddamn piece of art or trying to underscore an otherwise brilliant album with a laughably misguided attempt at social relevance.  Greg Anderson of Southern Lord has made a successful business out of not giving a shit what critics and supposed trendsetters think.  In turn, Southern Lord has continued to release some of the heaviest and genre defying heavy metal of the last decade.  It’s been an exercise in risk, and the results have seen even Anderson’s most recent hardcore tangent take on a life of its own with a vengeance.  Dallas thrash villains Power Trip are yet another incredibly impressive member of the Southern Lord family as their debut, Manifest Decimation is a welcome descent into the razored precision and lightning speed that only thrash metal at its very best can provide.

Manifest Decimation starts with a feedback drenched spiral into the Lemmy inspired vocals of Riley Gale.  There’s no aping here, though.  Just a kind of a vocal tip of the hat to thrash’s bewarted grandfather.  One of the best things about this record is that instead of jam packing a couple of good songs at the beginning of the record, this one is progressively heavier, faster, and more relentless with each track.  Tracks like “Heretic’s Fork” and “Conditioned to Death” showcase Power Trip’s impressive ability to groove step with the trash metal of their influences without mirroring them note for note.  Any digressions into breakdowns or tempo breaks here are temporary and simply let the listener catch their breath before the next inevitable onslaught.  “Murderer’s Row” may very easily end up being one of the best metal songs this year with its sans bullshit nods to thrash metal, speed metal, and punk all seamlessly put together in the course of less than four minutes. 

Closing track “Hammer of Doubt” works almost like a wink to trash metal naysayers.  It’s the longest track on the record at 6:26 and undoubtedly the most unabashedly brutal.  The track serves as a summation of what the record up to that point has been – a searing  auditory venture into insanity.  The thing with Manifest Decimation as with so many of Southern Lord’s releases is that it shows a band unwilling to compromise the core of its sound in favor of something less risky.  Power Trip are constantly referred to as crossover or speed or thrash metal, and it’s a solid fit.  Genre defying is good.  It makes for expanded sound and exciting forays into the unknown for a band.  What’s harder than that, though, is bringing your own definition to a genre that’s been the home to some of metal’s most revered.  Power Trip succeed on this level at every track, offering up a record that’s a nod to those who’ve come before and a headfirst leap into a dark new place.  Thrash is alive and well, and it’s pulse can be found quite easily in the sonic mayhem of Power Trip’s Manifest Decimation.  Manifest Decimation is available now courtesy of Southern Lord. 

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Tristan Shone, curator and brains behind Author & Punisher, creates music that is unforgiving and exact.  His latest release, Women & Children finds him utilizing those self-made instruments that set him apart from so many other musicians and bands.  To call Shone’s work innovative would be a fairly horrific understatement as Author & Punisher are a perfect example of the progression not just of heavy music but the way in which music as a whole is approached stylistically and compositionally.  I had the opportunity to chat with Tristan recently about this as well as his own thoughts on heavy music. 

What’s your approach to the writing process?  What does that look like once you begin to create these songs?

These songs came out of so many different places for me, but I would think largely a lot of these songs come by accident when I’m not forcing myself to sit and write.  The two piano-based songs were basically written for…I saw this Steinway piano in the library, and I was doing this art performance there with these masks that I made.  I just said “Oh shit, let’s do something that’s made for piano.”  I went home, took a piano out of my synth, and just started playing piano and coming up with some dark stuff that I liked.  I haven’t done that since I was in high school.  In actually working with that sound it totally opened up a whole new can of worms – different emotions. 

That was something I hadn’t done for a long, long time, so those songs stand out in a different way.  Two of the other songs, “Melee” and “Miles From Home,” were written while I had a two week residency at a friend’s house.  I was just in somebody else’s house with some keyboards and samplers.  I just sat there and drank beer, eating Mexican and listening to Mexican music, and I was just kind of writing these more dance beat tracks.  Whereas with the Ursus album I was sitting on my machines writing stuff, these songs were just coming from a whole different place.  A lot of times it was just me sitting on my couch with a laptop.  There’s no solid answer for this [laughs].  It’s just like a big mess. 

What’s brought you to the point where you are now as a musician?  What’s that journey been like leading you to create your own instruments and essentially carve your own path in the world of heavy music?

I really feel like the music comes from the same place.  I’ve been listening to the same bands.  I listen to a lot more electronic stuff now, but I still have these sounds and emotions that I’m chasing all the time.  The earlier albums, even though they might be a little cleaner or more hardcore based or something, they’re very much coming from the same place.  I think being locked into a guitar and a sequence of drum beats or maybe even another person – that kind of helped me back a little bit, and I felt almost too quantized into different pitches and genre specific, whereas when I started building my own instruments I was basically…there were things that were out of key. 

It didn’t have fixed pitches.  All of a sudden it was really hard to keep my time.  Just by putting my body in different positions with different pitches, not using guitars, all of a sudden I could approach that same emotion in my music.  I just drive the conceptual idea I have in my head in a different way – from a different angle.  Now, I’ve gotten to the point where I can kind of utilize…I’m better at harnessing those pitches and rhythms.  The drum machine is a lot slower – kind of more dronish than when I first started things, so it’s a little bit more dynamic.  Now I’m mixing it with other instruments.  The next album is going to be completely new instruments – next year sometime. 

What’s the process like for you in writing lyrics?

I think I had maybe ten words on the whole Ursus album.  I think maybe this is a big change.  I’d had some political stuff before, but I’ve moved away from that.  It’s more of an apocalyptic, hopeless vibe now for me, but I’m a pretty happy person, actually [laughs].  I don’t have much hope for the future, so there’s some elements of that in there.  Much like bands that I respect, I really don’t focus on it too much.  I remember David Byrne said something once about using voice as an instrument and sometimes it’s just the words that are coming out are not necessarily – they don’t even need to be meaningful.  They can be.  A lot of times I’ll write stuff, and then I’ll find out what it means later.  I’m not a poet.  I’m happy with the stuff that I’ve written.  A lot of it sounds like free association. 

So no hope for the human race?

Yeah.  I think it’s probably not so much people as it is like…a lot of metal people I know, they’re constantly complaining about people, but I think I’m pretty forgiving a lot of humans.  The overall state of nature and the planet, though, I’m more pessimistic about.  I really think people are intrinsically, more or less, good.

When you think about the evolution of the heavy music and where it stands now, or the direction it’s headed, I think Author & Punisher is a prime example of how the genre is progressing forward.  Do you think the growing popularity for heavy music could be attributed to this progress?  Is it a passing trend?

I think there’s two sides to that.  The same thing happened with like metalcore in the early 2000s and maybe with stoner and doom now.  If you’re in a stoner and doom band you gotta have long hair, tattoos, and a cutoff jean jacket.  That’s a whole genre of fashion now.  For me, it’s just like…a lot of people, when I show up to a show, and I’m dressed kind of normal, some people won’t even acknowledge that I’m there until after I play, and then they’re like “Oh, you’re Author & Punisher!” and I’m like “Oh, is it because I didn’t have tattoos and long hair that you didn’t say ‘Hi’ to me when I walked in the door?”  The same thing happens when you’re in Brooklyn.  It’s kind of like Oh…cool.  So this is like a hipster thing now [laughs].  I’m not bitter about that happening.  You are who you are.  The people who write real music maybe they do look like that, but more times than not you can just tell by the way people talk that hey – this is a musician, whether they’re a metal person or not. 

Then, you have the other side of it with bands like Sunn who are a little more conceptual metal and have broken through into some of the more poppy festivals like Prima Vera and things like that.  I think that’s great.  It crosses boundaries into something that’s more than metal, in my mind.  It’s performance art.  Whether it’s trendy or not, the actual metal underground scene is pretty narrow, so it’s opened up the genre a little bit.  The stoner doom thing is typically a little bit more boring.  Hopefully that’ll die a little bit.  I can tell when the band comes in the door – how they’ve geared the way they dress and the equipment that they have – I can almost tell what they’re gonna sound like.  It’s the same with electronic music.  I can tell by which controllers somebody has – oh yeah, they’re gonna be a cheesy dubstep band or this kind of techno. 

What do you see as the greatest challenge facing someone wanting to make viable heavy music in today’s culture?

I think it’s basically just working out financially how you’re going to get to that point where you…I mean, I’m not supporting myself on music.  I’m getting to the point where I’m making more money, because I’m just one person, so I can make X amount of dollars, where a band that’s got five people, and they’ve got a merch person, and a roadie or whatever.  Getting to that point, I don’t even really know if there should be a goal.  If you play long enough, everyone else will just give up.  If you’re really passionate about it, you just keep going, and something will work out for you.  I think a lot of people are not really willing to, or can’t, or don’t have the means to find some sort of job which allows them to do the amount of touring that you really need to do to get your name out there.  It’s just…it’s been since 2004 with Author & Punisher, and it’s just getting to the point where I got a call from Pitchfork to do an interview, you know?  I meet a lot of young bands, and god bless them if they can get to the point where they can get some publicity very early on, but you just really have to learn it and not care about that stuff. 

What is it about heavy music that keep drawing you back to create new things and expand your own sound?

If I go out at night, and I go to a club or a bar – I’m mostly listening to electronic stuff.  I like the purity of the electronic sound.  It’s a little less harsh.  I can hang out, and it’s a little more fun?  I don’t know [laughs].   Every once in a while I like to go out and hear a really heavy band in town.  I kind of get that through my own playing, so that’s enough [laughs].  There’s a certain thing with heavy music, that I’ve always just attached to.  I started listening to heavy stuff in the mid 90s, and I just have these sounds in my head, and these rhythms, and I’ll just be walking around during the day in my job and these sounds keep playing – like a grindy, heavy sound.  I’m always replaying it, and I want to make that sound, or I want to build something I can move that would help me make that.  It’s something that’s always there, and it’s never faded, so that’s a good thing.  Then also, I love the whole process.  Even though it’s a pain to build this stuff.  When you’re touring, every element of the night – you get there, have a beer, set up your stuff, meet the people, play, hang out with the people after, drive to the next thing.  This whole process – I’m just giddy the whole time.  I’m tired from the Euro trip, but I’m already looking forward to the next time. 

What are you typically doing when you’re not touring or writing?

I’m a huge soccer fan, and I play in an old guy men’s league.  I watch a lot of other sports, too.  I come from Boston, so I’m a fan of Boston when it comes to those things, but I’m really into the British, European, and American soccer stuff.  I also have two dogs, and we hang out a lot, and when the weather’s warm, I’ll go surfing.  But I’m not a very good surfer [laughs]. 

Thanks to Tristan for his time.  

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It’s hard not to let the anticipation of an album eat away at the reality that ultimately hits once you hit play.  In a year of some absolutely groundbreaking metal (see Deafheaven, Altar of Plagues, VHÖL, Inter Arma, etc.) the standards are incredibly high.  The cringe-inducing term “supergroup” comes with either the listener’s notion of hopeful apprehension or immediate dismissal.  What one group terms as a bloated vanity project, another will label a brilliant work of musicianship.  Thankfully, the Chino Moreno (Deftones), Aaron Harris (ISIS), Jeff Caxide (ISIS), and Clifford Meyer (ISIS) combination better known as Palms, falls handily into the latter category with their debut self-titled release.  Both meditative and quietly intense, Palms is a record that doesn’t distance itself from the members’ other bands so much as it allows them to compliment those styles in a new atmosphere. 

First track “Future Warrior” starts off with a sound reminiscent of 80s era Depeche Mode intertwined with the overarching and always brilliant guitar/bass/synth mastership of Caxide and Meyer.  The gorgeous layered production of the instrumentation here is contrasted against the immediately recognizable vocal style of Moreno whose clean vocals are as impressive as they’ve ever been here.  Harris adds his percussive precision and affinity for subtle nuances behind the drums in a way that underscores the entire mood of the record.  While Moreno commands the vocals, Harris drives the sound without being forceful.  “Patagonia,” the first track released from the record, is stunningly gorgeous with Moreno’s vocals lilting dreamlike over Caxide’s ethereal bass work.  Meyer is equally as complimentary with his guitar/synth work having sonic conversations to match the winding path set forth by Harris. 

“Mission Sunset” stands out as both the longest track and one of the album’s highlights with its hiccupped rhythms and hazy atmospherics.  Palms is a triumph of a record even without considering the pedigree of the musicians involved.  Much like VHÖL’s debut this year, Palms shows a group of absolute masters of their craft refusing to let their previous bands determine the soundscapes created here.  Moreno, Harris, Caxide, and Meyer make for such a good ensemble it’s a wonder they haven’t done something together long before now.  The timing is perfect, however, as with their debut, Palms have crafted another pathway in the journey for each of its members.  It’s one that while echoing some of the sentiments of Deftones and ISIS, is something else entirely with all members combining to create a record that’s startlingly beautiful and contemplative.  Palms will be released June 25^th, courtesy of Ipecac Recordings.  Listen to “Patagonia” here.             

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I was taken aback only a few seconds into my conversation with AngelFukk Witchhammer (A.M.S.G./Ouroboros) as his calm and reflective tone completely contrasted the serrated vocals I’d heard just minutes before on A.M.S.G.’s fantastic and raw Anti Cosmic Tyranny.  Witchhammer’s sincerity is unquestionable as is his unadorned approach to black metal.  There’s a depth and integrity to the standard he holds with both his music and his personal life.  I had the opportunity to speak with AngelFukk about authenticity in the metal world today as well as his stint in prison. 

When you first started listen to music to the point where you are now, what’s your journey as a musician and fan looked like?

That was a long time ago.  It’s hard to remember back in the day, but I grew up in the 80s, so…I remember listening to heavier types of music and stuff.  It always drew me, because when I grew up it was in the 80s, so there was what like rock and disco [laughs].  Pretty much pop hits and disco.  And then metal.  Lucky for me I was drawn to the heavy shit, and it’s been kind of a rocky ride up until now, because being in Canada which is very less populated, it’s hard to get into the underground.  It’s a lot harder for us up here, because of the lack of population.  There’s less people into it.  It’s more like a secret or esoteric thing almost.  Like the Freemasonry club or something.  You get into it when you’re younger, and you have no idea, and then you find some likeminded people.  You become friends because of the music.  You’d hook up after school and listen to metal, or one of your friends would just get a wicked LP, and you’d go over to his house and listen to it.  Growing up like that…I liked that, because when you get older you get the fliers, you do writing bands, you tape trade – it’s almost like an art form.  

Now, it’s a very different atmosphere.  As an example, when I got out of prison last summer I went to go check out these new bands play.  A couple of them were alright, and I went to go talk to one of the guys after, because he seemed cool.  So I go over there, and I’m like “How’s it going, blah, blah, blah…,” and I introduced myself, and they did not understand black metal.  I asked them all, “So you guys…what are some bands you like?”  And they were like “Well, we listen mostly to our band on YouTube.”  [Laughs]  I didn’t even know how to respond to that.  There’s a generation gap.  I’m used to talking to people who used to write bands and work to get that LP.  You see a flier, you send your $20 with a pre-stamped envelope for sure reply.  You wait, and sometimes you never got the LP, or sometimes it would take months.  

There was no YouTube.  For me, it’s like the information is there, which is a good and a bad thing, because it does weed out the people who aren’t true to it.  It allows a lot of people that are false to gather information right directly to them, and it’s easier for them to jump on the bandwagon.  That’s what I find today.  And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because obviously I’ve had to go to that route too.  I don’t understand it as a 90s kid growing up.  I just find myself getting deeper and deeper into the underground, man.  Turning myself away from the internet.  I don’t even really go on the internet anymore unless it’s writing emails or something like that.  As far as that goes, I still feel underground.  I still write letters.  I’m where I want to be, and where I should be, I think.  I can only follow the road the best I can.  It’s been an up and down journey.  When I went to prison for that amount of time there was no music at all.  Getting out, I had music in my head.  Getting out was like a whole new scene almost.  It changed.  

From your own perspective have you seen that kind of immediacy and availability of information affect heavy metal?

I think it’s affected it in a bad way.  It’s lost mysteriousness about it.  The secrets and mystery behind it – the power is gone.  When I’m on the internet, and I’m just scoping out blogs or whatever, and I see a harsh band and a picture, and they just look ridiculous on the internet.  It makes their stuff almost jokeish.  I remember back in the day getting a flier for the first Impiety seven inch.  I was like “Holy fuck, these motherfuckers are harsh looking.”  It was all photocopied, and they looked mysterious and harsh.  You don’t have that.  I’m going to pin this flier to my fucking wall.  Now, it’s like who are these jokers?  It just seems like the mystery and power…it’s like a normal person couldn’t go back and listen to the Impiety seven inch back then.  They wouldn’t be getting these fliers.  It was almost like you were part of a strict club of metal [laughs].  Just Satanic, evil, mysterious – your fucking grandparents don’t know about this shit.  You found a secret outlet.  Now with the internet it’s everywhere you go.  Black metal has become so popular now that it’s lost something.  I feel that it’s lost something.  As a good example, the band Ghost.  Now, I personally like Ghost, because I know what they’re trying to do.  Their first album is a good Mercyful Fate tribute.  I went to go see them here, and I was probably the only fucking metalhead.  I was surrounded by all these hipsters, and Ghost are talking about human sacrifice in the ritual chamber, and all these people are singing along, and they think it’s a joke.  They think these guys aren’t Satanic.  If they were back in the 80s, Ghost would be how King Diamond was where it’s like holy fuck.  Ghost wouldn’t be as popular as it is today, but they’d have the right popular.  

You mentioned going to prison.  What led up to that, and what was that experience like?  Did the experience have influence over your approach to the latest A.M.S.G. material?

[Laughs]  It was inevitable, I think.  I refuse to conform to the slave Christian Democratic mindset that this country has put everyone through.  The mass populated idea to be a slave, to pay your taxes, to worship god and everything will be okay, and if you don’t do that you go to hell.  Going to prison, I guess I’m old school in that sense.  Growing up, we were all like black metal.  With the band Ouroboros, we were young.  We were fucking fifteen at that time.  We were whoremongers – just having a fire inside invoked that.  We refused to live by those laws of man, because those aren’t the real laws of man.  Fuck laws of man.  We’re animals.  In the Christian’s eyes, we’re terrorists, because we bring terror to them.  Church burnings, beatings, walking down the street drunk with a big gang of us just fighting people – on that aspect it was inevitable.  Looking the way we do, acting the way we do, it’s hard to get a normal job set, because we’re not your usual weekend warrior metalheads where we have a leather jacket that we put on and a bullet belt on the weekend.  No, this is an every day lifestyle.  

I remember waking up covered in blood and having blacked out eyes for weeks, because we were just living like that.  So, for income wise, we had to resort to some criminal activity.  I was putting all the money I was making into the band.  Into distro stuff.  Trading, trying to build stuff.  I was just trying to do that in that aspect.  We were building black metal on crime.  It was almost like a criminal organization of music.  We’d go out there and sell drugs and guns and I remember selling drugs and guns all day and then going to band practice.  That was just normal.  Eventually the shit’s gonna catch up to you, because the odds are against you.  Doing crime is like going to a fucking casino.  You can only win for so long until you get busted.  The house always wins when you’re fighting an enemy bigger than you are.  That’s pretty much what got us to jail.   

Canadian prison is not like American prison.  Your guys’ prison system is flooded.  I think the amount of people you have in prison in the States is almost the population of Canada.  It’s a very grim place here, though.  You go in there and there’s actually respect between a bunch of criminals.  It’s more like a real world than the one we live in.  People are used to living behind their white picket fence in a bubble, but in there if someone doesn’t like you, you’re getting smashed out.  The fighting is pretty savage, but it’s very real.  Life is very cheap, and you realize that.  It’s like living in Colombia or something, except there’s a steel fucking cage, and you’re not allowed out.  I would never say that prison…I don’t want to go back, but I wouldn’t change that.  I’m glad I went there.  For a shorter time would have been nice, but whatever.  I thrived there, because I was more in an element of just pure barbaric respect.  Honor and respect, but it was pure warfare as well.  

I watched ten people die in front of me, and some of them pretty violently.  I saw people’s throats get slit.  A guy boiled a pot of honey and threw it in this guy’s face who was right in front of me.  Aspects like that…you’re sitting there, and that just happens, and you’re like holy fuck.  Life is very delicate.  They call walkout, and you go back to your cell, and what do you do when all you have is a wall?  Prison is the perfect place to write music.  It had an influence on me somewhat, but the album was always there.  The darkness and atmosphere in prison helped and made it a bit sharper, but the whole album was already pretty much there.  

Concerning the religious or anti religious aspects of your music, do you consider yourself a theistic Satanist or an atheistic Satanist, or a conglomeration of different occult beliefs?

I take things from every class, actually.  My thoughts are crazy on the subject.  I don’t think you have enough room on your site to write it.  I walk my own path in a way.  We have an order here.  Me and some people that are with other organizations worldwide, and we follow not an atheist Luciferian order, but my sense is very…I don’t think that there’s a black cloaked, horned devil sitting in hellfire.  Like an Anton LaVey Satanist, or even a Cathedral of the Black Goat type of organization that’s in America.  Thinking of Satan as like a horned being or something…you’re just taking the Judea or Christian concept and just worshipping that.  To me, my own path is righteous.  It crushes the bible.  My learnings – I try to take from all over the place, and make them my own.  I agree with some stuff, and I don’t agree with some stuff.  It’s helped me achieve maximum consciousness which I use in my beliefs.  It takes years of practice and rituals to make it your own and better yourself.  People just think “Oh, I’m gonna get into Satanism, or I like metal now.”  Metal doesn’t make you a Satanist.  They think if you go to church it’s going to be a quick fix.  If you’re going to travel down this path it’ll take years.  I’ll always be learning stuff.  Luciferian philosophy takes years.  So, to answer you…I’m neither and everything, I guess [laughs].  

Thanks to AngelFukk for his time.  Anti Cosmic Tyranny will be released courtesy of Profound Lore Records.

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