MetalsPeak - Interviews

Jared snagged some time with Origin's insanely out of control bassist, Mike Flores and got his thoughts on how the Occupation Domination tour was going and what it takes to keep the energy up during a headlining set. He also talked about how Entity came together and the challenges therein - they completed the album as a three piece without a regular vocalist. And we got some insight into plans for the rest of the year. Mike also copped to some guilty pleasures.

Jared caught up with Sven before they annihilated The Marquis Theater on the Occupation Domination Tour. He shared some thoughts on the tour thus far. He also talked about the time span between "Strychnine.213" and "Global Flatline" including the writing process, thematic elements, and lyrical inspiration. Sven also shared some thoughts on plans for the rest of the year for both Aborted and System Divide. This lead to the stock question about differences between touring in America vs touring in Europe.

Even in a wiped out state after a show, we can't pass up an opportunity to talk to one of our favorites, The Contortionist. Robby and Cameron talked to us about the addition of the 7 string to their arsenal. It was surprising to find out they are using the extra string for the high string, rather than the low one as is typical. We heard a little about the recent Ibanez endorsement as well. And of course we tried to garner as much info as possible about the upcoming new album, their experience at Audio Hammer, and some specifics on what to look forward to and when. Oh yeah and Jonathan gave us a peak at some of his Photoshop skills, which are top notch and involved Zoo animals.

A few weeks ago, All Shall Perish blazed through Denver with four other killer bands. We got to spend some time with Eddie Hermida and he explained that not only was this the first headlining tour in support of "This Is Where It Ends" but it was also the first time ASP got to plan the tour their way. He went into some specifics on what that means compared to previous headlining tours. We also had some genre discussion on the whole "core" thing and the evolution of ASP's sound as well as where lyrical inspiration comes from. Eddie also shared a nugget of trivia that might get you a free shirt if you've been listening to the podcast recently... We also got some insight into ASP's plans for the rest of the year.

Then we broke off into some pretty heavy philosophical discussion including opinions on the Occupy Wallstreet movement. And what MetalsPeak interview would be complete without an awkward moment courtesy of Daigle. This time up: Daigle spoils a major character death from The Walking Dead. You're welcome.

We snagged some time with Cristiano and Tommaso to see how life has changed since their first time to the States about a year and a half ago. We also got some insight on reactions to Agony as well as what goes in to creating their set lists. They also talked about recruiting their keyboardist, how that's affected the live show, and what the future might have in store. And then Cristiano confirmed what Daigle has believed (despite mockery and taunting): that someone else in the metal world has got to be a Harry Potter fan too.

We scored some time on the Cannibal bus to chat with Paul Mazurkiewicz about the Torture tour and recording process, what keeps Cannibal Corpse going, and non-metal favorites including a surprising guilty pleasure. Paul also gave some insight into their album covers over the years and what his views are on the current and future states of metal.

We stole some time from Matt and Wes of Exhumed before they tore Colorado Springs a new asshole to conduct what turned out to be one of the most fun interviews we've done to date. We started things off by hearing about highlights from the tour thus far as well as what kinds of feedback they've been getting on "All Guts, No Glory" - this included the endorsement of "Not that many people said that we were retarded..." And then the greatest derailment of all time occurred when we found out that "Drunk military guy" trumps "Toothless aging crack whore". Somehow everything was brought back around with some philosophical talk about homeless people and cheese.

When we finally got back on track, Matt and Wes divulged some details on what brought them out of hiatus, and challenges/advantages to the various line up changes they've had over the years. We also got some pretty interesting takes from them on our topic of top 10 blasphemous songs.

We caught up with John after Darkest Hour's set on the first night of the Machine Head tour. We talked about what they're looking forward to on the rest of the dates. John also gave us some exclusive insight into the darkest aspects of driving around in their van (which has 245,000 plus miles). And we captured a bonus moment with a DH fan from way back. Turns out this kind of interruption is preferable to the kind that occurred during our Fleshgod Apocalypse interview. John shared some highlights from 2011 as well.

We found a somewhat quiet spot to chat with Kim about touring (specifically climate differences between America and Australia), plans for 2012, Cameron Gray's artwork for "This Is The Warning" and the video concept for "One Step" including an amazing recreation of the backwards singing within it. Kim also shared a fascinating story about a miscalculated blast radius - don't miss this!

We sat down with Trevor Phipps to talk about touring, response to "Darkness In The Light", theme parties at the Rockstar Mayhem tour, cultural differences about touring in Japan, and thoughts on best albums of 2011.