So, I'm gonna wait a bit to finish recapping our (seemingly) endless supply of marginally humorous road stories (that usually begin with, "this one time in _____, I was soooo wasted...") and talk a bit about what we're doing right this second. We are once again in the studio at work on a new record. We've returned to beautiful (and by beautiful, I mean "beautiful" Corona, California) to record drum tracks at Trench studios with engineer John Haddad for album number five. Right now it's the morning of day three, and things are well under way.
The question I get most often right now is "When the fuck did you guys have time to write a new album? You've been on tour non-stop since February?!?" Well, unlike All Guts, where we were able to write at our leisure and swap pre-production files, this album has been put together in fits and starts. Due to being on the road so much, I have been writing in between tours - a little bit here, a little bit there, and as the deadline neared, I have been clearing out my "riff warehouse" with feverish speed. I always have songs that never get finished, or get finished but only have one or two cool parts, or a riff with nothing to go with it that has been bugging me for years. Luckily, our former guitarist Wes and I were on an intense writing jag when we did All Guts... and I had about six songs written that didn't make the cut. That said, they didn't make the cut for a reason - we recorded the strongest songs for the record. However... there are always a couple of good ideas in those songs that just need to be gleaned, extracted, strengthened and molded into something else. They have been an excellent springboard for new stuff. So between coming up with completely new songs, getting ideas from the best riffs and unused bits I had languishing around, and writing in the jam room, we have about 40-42 minutes worth of brand new material. Again, we're shooting for an album length of about 35 minutes (I feel that with this style of music anything longer starts to drag and sap the listener's endurance / attention span), so we have more than enough new stuff.
What we didn't have enough of however, was rehearsal time. Between our liver-destroying and brain-numbing road schedule, disparate zip codes, line-up shifts, occasional bouts of employment, and any facsimile of personal lives, we have had little to no prep time as a band to work out these new songs. Every time we would get in the jam room, we were getting a set list ready for a tour, and if we did work on a new idea, it was neglected for a month or more and never really picked up again.
So, we spent a little over two weeks after returning from Summer Slaughter in the jam room, pounding away at the new material and getting the basic framework of the songs down. The details and fancy bits we're honing as we go in the studio. It's been an exciting way to work, and each take really captures the vibe of that particular moment, which I really dig. Mike's drum set is sounding fucking huge already, and I'm itching to get to Chandler, AZ to start laying down guitars and vocals.
Day one was spent tuning the drum kit and getting some tones. The vibe of this record is a little darker and more open, so we went for a little lower tones, added a bigger tom, and got a bit bigger and boomier drum sound from the get-go. That took most of the day (which is pretty normal, actually pretty quick compared to most recordings), but we opted to track a song in the remaining few hours. Since our prep time was so limited, we compensated by booking more studio time for everything this time around and we were shooting for getting tones the entire first day and nailing two songs each of the following days. So we were psyched to get a little ahead of the game - the extra cushion always comes in handy. However, it was a bit late to drive out to LA for the Murder Construct CD release show we were considering attending that night, which was disappointing. I would have loved to have time to hang with friends and enjoy some top-notch grind. If you haven't checked out their album Results, do yourself a favor. It features a bunch of my old buddies kicking some serious ass. But I digress... Instead we grabbed a couple of bottles of wine (yes, go ahead and snigger) and retired for the evening.
Day two, Rob and I headed to the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles (about 50 miles from Corona - which means about two hours away in LA traffic) to file for our visas for the Japanese shows we have coming up in October and get one of my guitars repaired. Meanwhile in Corona, Mike got to work on a song recording along with the midi pre-production tracks I had whipped up. By the time we made it back to the studio, several frustrating hours had elapsed sitting in traffic and we were a bit behind schedule. I settled in, got hastily warmed up, and Mike and finished the track. After a short break for a late lunch / early dinner, we decided to try and nail another one. Then one of those killer moments happened when things just started working. The vibe was awesome and great ideas kept coming out at breakneck speed. Even our engineer, John (who used to play drums in Phobia back in the day) suggested a beat that no one had thought of that worked out perfectly. Before we knew it, the song was in the can, and we were all pumped on our day's work left fully stoked! Which brings us to the present. Which means I need to stop typing, and get my ass over to the studio to get this record done.
Wow, I really have not updated this thing in a long time. I can only say to myself, in the immortal words of Tim and / or Eric: "Ya blew it". So... what better way to get things going again then with some news and crap. And then onto the tour diary entries that anyone familiar with this blog probably knows and tolerates.
So... First off, in the "news" category, as anyone who came out to the Summer Slaughter shows undoubtedly noticed, we have a new guitar player whose name may be familiar to you: Bud Burke. Bud joined the band on bass way back in '99 for the Contamination tour we did with Soilent Green, Today Is The Day, Morgion, and Nasum (who were on the first ten shows with us). Bud had always been a guitar player, and we first met him in '94 or so when he was in a local San Jose Death Metal band called Pale Existence (which also featured Lorin Ashton, better known today as international DJ extraordinaire Bassnectar - true story). At some point someone had borrowed his PA and he thought we might have it and he called us up right after we had parted ways with the inimitable Ross Sewage. Instead of finding his PA, he ended up touring with us on and off for the next four years. After our original skinbeater, Col Jones departed the band in '03, Bud also opted to split - probably because he is a monster shredder and would rather be known for that than for playing distorted bass and throwing up onstage. Anyway, when the decision was made to split with Wes, he was the first and only person we thought of for the job. We are super psyched to have him back in the band and had a killer time partying with him on the Summer Slaughter tour.
Bud Burke: He's Partying.
In other exciting (at least to us) news... Mike (Hamilton, drums), Rob (Babcock, bass / vox) and I have been rehearsing nonstop in beautiful San Luis Obispo California for the last couple of weeks in preparation for our next LP since we got back from tour. We enter the studio September 24th and should be done with the whole shebang by October 21st. We have 12 new songs worked up and will be shooting for a May 2013 release. Even though our rehearsal time has been extremely limited due to our road schedule, we managed to come up with couple of new ones in the jam room in the past week and have been having a blast working through all this material (when we haven't been rebuilding my dad's backyard). Our plan for this one is pretty similar to what we did on "All Guts...". We'll be tracking the drums in Corona with John Haddad at Trench Studios and then heading to Chandler Arizona to do everything else with Ryan Butler at Arcane Digital. After the tracking is done we'll be sending the whole ball of wax off to get mixed while we're on the road with Napalm Death and Municipal Waste throughout late October and November. Oh yeah, and while we're recording, we'll be taking a quick break to head over to Japan for three shows with Cannibal Corpse. So Fall is gonna be fucking nuts. The plan for now is to take some time off until the new album hits after this last 2012 tour, so if you live in the US or Canada and somehow you still haven't seen us (we've done like 190 shows since last April- c'mon!) this will be an excellent opportunity.
This tour is going to fucking rule your face off.
So... that's what's new with us. Now, I'm going to launch into one of my tedious reminiscences about our tours. So if that sounds boring, you can go look at internet porn or cat videos or whatever else you do at work. But, if you like stories about idiots being idiots, then by all means, continue reading. In the interest of "staying current" I'm gonna launch into the Summer Slaughter Tour, which in all honesty was a lot less fun than our tours supporting Cannibal Corpse and Black Dahlia Murder, but it was the most recent, the freshest in my mind and the pictures were the first ones in my phone. The time between the conclusion of the Black Dahlia Murder tour and the Summer Slaughter was really chaotic. I ended up stepping in at the last possible moment to fill in for the Death To All tour, which was exhilarating, humbling, stressful, and nerve-racking all at once. When I get another second, I'll post some pics and tell that tale in its entirety. Basically as soon as I got home from DTA we made the call to get a new guitarist, which was a rough move to make, as Wes is a killer guitar player and a great songwriter, but it was definitely the right move for us going forward. Then we were forced to cancel our show at Obscene Extreme (which we were going to do as three-piece - '97 style!) due to the death in one of the guy's immediate family, so the whole week seemed to be going to shit. Three days before the start of the tour, Bud flew out to California from North Carolina and rode north with Rob from sunny Orange County to sleepy San Luis Obispo for a whopping two days of rehearsal. Luckily, a lot of the older material was still somewhere in Bud's beer-soaked memory banks and things went really well. We did totally revamp the set list we had planned and ended up playing a lot more old songs just due to lack of preparation time. At any rate, we left for Los Angeles on Thursday July 19, as ready as we would ever be for five weeks of sun, fun, and corporate rock. Summer Slaughter - 1st leg - July 20-31 To begin with, I'm gonna say that tours like Summer Slaughter just aren't really my thing. As a dude rapidly closing in on 37 years old who's been listening to Metal in some form or other since the end of 1986, the idea of a ten-to-twelve band bill that starts at one in the afternoon is about as attractive as Roseanne Barr's taint. That said, our record label and booking agent, both of whom I really do trust, insisted that we take this tour and that it would be an excellent way to reach new fans. I believe they were correct in that assertion, so please take any subsequent bellyaching on my part (there will be quite a bit) with a grain or six of salt and remember that they are simply the grousings of aging, road-weary crank. My main concern was that I really didn't want to play first and have to go on at 4:00 in the afternoon every day. Well, we were second on the tour package, and played around 4:15 everyday. Obviously, I really need to aim higher.
At any rate, most shows featured a local and regional opener, because hey - on a ten band package tour, introducing as many variables per day will definitely make things run smoother. Yes, italics represent sarcasm. However, Charlie and Redbeard, the production and stage manager really did a bang-up job keeping things organized and on-time. Of course with eleven or twelve bands every day, there is not a lot space, backstage room, catering, beer, guest list spots for friends / family, room to set up merchandise etc. etc. to go around. This would get interesting many times on tour. The first show being in LA was very convenient for us logistically, as it's a three hour drive from where we live. Our agent extraordinaire, Dan Rozenblum was on hand for the tour kickoff, which is always a sign of an excellent time. We were also very stoked that our old pals in Goatwhore were on the tour with us, so that there would always be someone around that wanted to listen to Venom or Judas Priest at any given moment. The LA show was weird, in that it was packed, but not with people we knew or normally saw at our shows. That would be a continuing theme throughout the tour. We hung out with the Abysmal Dawn dudes a bit, met up with Kevin Stewart-Panko, our tour manager / merch Guy / Babysitter-in-Chief / internationally renowned journalist, saw a bunch of friends, and ended up spending a decent amount of money at the bar ($6 PBR, House Of Blues!?!? You guys are dicks.) after finding out that we were only receiving water on this tour. Ugh. That news went over like a Ratt shirt at an Exodus show in '85. Thankfully the next day's drive to San Diego was mercifully short and the tour was underway.
Limb From Limb Live in LA
San Diego was fun. We started getting the hang of sneaking friends into the show (which can be tricky at some of these more "professional" type venues), and left after our set to drink beer and watch sports, which was a much better use of our time than hanging out at the venue and seeing the same bands we would have dozens more opportunities to see. Of course, San Diego has probably the best weather in the country, so it's always nice to be out there. And aside from their odious sports teams, it's a pretty great place. Vegas was next... One of my least favorite cities in the US, but we've never had a shitty show there. And I have to admit, the food at House Of Blues (the LA, Vegas, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, and Chicago shows were all at House Of Blues) is pretty good, even if it is a soulless, contrived, fake, trite, corporate rock in the absolute worst sense of the term, touristy, and overpriced bullshit place to hang out. And they have air conditioning. Vegas was a lot of fun, and the audience was actually fucking great.
After the show, we undertook the first of many all-day drinking tailgate parties with Goatwhore in the van area (which was mercifully covered, but still very, very hot). By the end of the night, we were all tanked. Right as things were winding down, Rob "Wild Card" Babcock somehow wandered off. This is never a good thing. By the time one AM rolled around we were the last vehicle in the parking lot. I was looking forward with rapt anticipation to arriving in Chandler Arizona at the home of the aforementioned Ryan Butler around six AM for a nice four or five hours of non-van sleep in air-conditioned comfort. Instead, I was looking for Rob. By five AM, I was furious and also a little bit worried. I felt like the father of teenage girl who hasn't come home hours after her curfew had passed. Or something similar but less weird-sounding. We called the local jail and drunk tank, who assured us that they hadn't arrested anyone we knew, which was mostly reassuring. By six AM, still sitting in the House Of Blues parking lot, we began considering the drive time to the Scottsdale show. In order to make our load-in time (noon - to give you an idea of our typical day, three or four PM is the average load-in time for a show - so noon feels really, really fucking early on tour. I'm not even usually awake at noon - yeah, I know, I'm a real winner) we would need to depart Las Vegas no later than eight AM or cancel the show. On a show with ten bands, moving spots or changing set times is simply not an option. By 7:30 AM, any worries I may have had were completely replaced with anger - keep in mind, we'd been outside all night in 90+ degree weather, waiting for nearly eight hours. Any reasonable person would be a bit cranky at this point. At 7:40, Rob finally stumbles into view with the sentence, "I just woke up on the roof of one of these buildings... That was weird." At last the van starts moving, the AC comes on, almost everyone passes out, and we push off for AZ. I've always considered myself to be a warm-weather, outside-in-the-sun kind of guy, (I mean, I did live in Hawaii for almost two years) but after this tour I have serious doubts about that assumption. Being outside in Scottsdale in the summer is sort of like being on fire, but it doesn't look as cool. We did make it to the show more or less on time, everything was fine and we were already laughing about our night in Vegas. We hung out with Ryan and Matt from Landmine Marathon and Tim from Sorrower, and afterwards, I headed off to go drinking with an old buddy I hadn't seen in years. The day turned out to be awesome. By the time I got back into the area of the venue I still got to knock a couple back with the Goatwhore guys. The next day was a drive day... it's quite a ways between Phoenix and Dallas, let me tell you. Having just played El Paso twice on the Cannibal run, it didn't make sense to fill the off day with a show there, so we just trucked out through the desert.
Bud and yours truly in Scottsdale. Photo by Aly Webstar.
Dr. Philthy presses the flesh in Arizona. Photo by Aly Webstar.
Trying to stop being morons long enough to get some new band photos after the Scottsdale show. Photo by Aly Webstar.
Dallas has never been a city I've been particularly fond of either for some reason. I like San Antonio and Houston, hell I even dig El Paso, but Dallas has never done much for me. The show we did at Trees back in '04 with Cannibal Corpse and Hypocrisy was fun there, though. At any rate, I honestly can't remember anything of note really happening in Dallas on this tour. I'm sure it was relatively cool and stuff, but I'm totally drawing a blank. San Antonio, however was a bit more memorable. The show itself was fucking excellent, and the audience was killer. Afterwards, it was soon time for another ridiculous all day / night parking lot rager, where we socialized a bit with some of the other bands that I wasn't all that familiar with and had a great time. We later found out that Rob (surprise!) got a little rambunctious with the Job For A Cowboy guys, so he bought them a bottle of Jameson in Mission TX the next day and any non-consensual roughhousing was forgiven. Mission was fun because we went to the grocery store (HEB) and filled up our coolers with snacks, gatorades, soda and of course, beer (duh). We also met Sally, sister to one of my oldest dearest friends Lily. She was beyond hospitable and helped us run a ton of errands (not as easy as it sounds on tour - especially when you have a trailer and you have to load in at noon every day) and of course eat amazing Mexican food. We left Mission replenished and headed for the cradle of Willie D, Scarface, and Bushwick, H-town.
I finally ate at Jimmy John's for the first time in Houston after we loaded everything in. I had heard a lot about Jimmy John's before finally sampling their menu. A prime example: James Harvey from Goatwhore's rules are: don't talk shit about his girlfriend; don't talk shit about his motorcycle; and don't talk shit about Jimmy John's. Even without the threat of angering a 6'4" 250 pound man-mountain like James, I would say that the sandwich was pretty damn good. I wish we had Jimmy John's in Cali. But I also with that the entire country had taquerias, taco trucks, good Asian food, In-and-Out, Fatburger, Tommy Burger, and Nations like we do in California. But I digress. After the show (at yet another House Of Blues) and dinner, we headed to the bar down the street. It was actually a pretty fun and cool bar. Here are a couple of pics from the night:
Rob, Cowboy Space Ace, and Bud.
This chick was fucking weird.
At any rate, after some extremely intoxicated Geto Boys rap-alongs, we passed out as we headed into yet another drive day. This time, en route to Tampa. By this time, we had noticed something was going on with our AC. Thankfully, it was fully functioning, but the entire floor of the van was soggy. That was not too cool. Faced with an extremely long drive, we decided to figure it out in Tampa and charge through the deep south, wet feet notwithstanding. We did make a couple of noteworthy stops. Apparently our
faithful drummer Mike Hamilton owned a non-camoflaged piece of clothing
and wanted to rectify his oversight, so we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop / Outdoor world in Alabama. This place was fucking nuts. Bud headed to the nearby Hooters for a beer where we picked him up later. Yup, we were in the South.
This place is bigger than most Wal-Marts and also includes a diorama of stuffed animals (like taxidermy, not like cute and fluffy) in various salient poses on top of fake trees, fake mountains, the works. Lots of cool fucking guns though.
Hooters- Where attractive women with questionable self-esteem serve awful food to people of questionable intelligence.
We pressed on to the land of early nineties Death Metal, extreme humidity and my least favorite Pirate-related professional sports team: Tampa. The venue, The Ritz, was in Ybor City, the downtown area, so there would definitely be stuff to do after the show. We loaded in and took the van to Midas for $500 or so of repair work (always a great way to start the day), then Brian Hopp, our dauntless sound guy informed us that he had mono and was leaving the tour after that show. Hoo boy. What a day. I was dying from the humidity, not really getting enough sleep for the past week (the earlier load in times were seriously interrupting the part of the day where I usually sleep though my hangovers - and I am being 100% serious on that), and pissed about the van and losing our sound guy (although the tour stage manager Redbeard stepped up to the plate and did a killer job) so I retreated to the bar across the street, put on some go-to juke box selections (Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, and Deep Purple) and had a couple cold beers. The day was starting to look up... Our van was ready, all we had to do was grab a cab across town and pick 'er up. And then... the police arrived and started emptying the venue due to some idiot writing a death threat to Job For A Cowboy. My formerly quiet Monday afternoon bar was packed with people blasting Death Metal on the jukebox and the street was cordoned off so the cab took 45 minutes to get there. So much for relaxation.
At least I used the time waiting for a cab wisely... Photo by Dr. Philthy.
This is what you do not want to see pulling up outside your show.
At any rate, like any person with poor judgment would do, upon returning to Ybor City with the van and finding out that the show would proceed as planned, I proceeded to ease my fatigue, frustration and general malaise by getting totally blitzed. I remember multiple bars, beers, gay people singing karaoke, scotch, shots, martinis, maybe a slice of pizza? At any rate, I woke up at some point in a house I'd never seen before being told to get back in the van by Kevin. It was a confusing night, and I barely remember enough of it to even make a good story out of it. The next day in Ft. Lauderdale however, I remember with excruciating clarity. I woke up in the van at about 12:45, covered with sweat, wearing only my underwear, ready to throw up. And I did. Many times. By the time we went onstage at 4:00 or so, I was still throwing up. When we got offstage - wait for it... - I threw up. I had two interviews to do after the show, and in between them, I - stay with me now... - threw up again. Finally when everything was done, I - yes, after throwing up - laid back down in the sweltering van. I didn't load any gear in or out, I was just a complete loss for the whole day. This is why I can't get too mad when other band members tell me they woke up on a roof after being MIA for eight hours. At any rate, finally around eight at night, I made it over to hang with our friend chef Bill and his son John and his lovely lady Alyssa for some a-fucking-mazing barbecue, and a couple of drastically needed sodas. I was going to post a video from this show, by my vocals are honestly so terribly blown out that I will let you find stuff from this show yourself on youtube if you want to see / hear me at my worst. Although considering how I felt, I'm surprised they aren't worse. We left around 9pm that night in order to make sure we would get to Atlanta on time... I know it's not much of a cliffhanger ending (spoiler alert: We did indeed make the show and play) but it's a good point to leave off until the next installment, which with any semblance of work ethic should be up in a couple of days. Cheers, Harvey and the lads
Exhumed has never been a band to shy away from playing live, and since we've been back in action last year, that has held more truly than ever. Since the release of “All Guts, No Glory” last summer, we've played 150 shows, not to mention 12 before the record came out. We've done 75 so far this year, starting with a one-off gig in Los Angeles for the Relapse / Scion showcase, and then embarking on European, UK, American, and Canadian tours straight after. Oh, and we actually ended up canceling 5 shows in Brazil due to problems getting our visas. So 2012 has been pretty damn busy.
Starting off with the Scion show in LA, Relapse stacked a very mixed bill, featuring their new signings Royal Thunder, a gloomy southern doom rock unit with a frontwoman with pipes of steel. Their EP was great, but unfortunately I was really busy catching up with friends and didn't really get to see much of their set. Revocation was next, a tech death / thrash band with chops to spare. They are brutal road-dogs and played a sphincter-tight set. Black Tusk was next, kind of a sludgy Southern-fried Stoner doom act. Their music is great, and they are seriously fun guys to party with. It was a bit of a weird crowd that day, as our fans and Revocation's had a lot of common ground, but Black Tusk and Royal Thunder were maybe not to the taste of a bunch of death / thrash / grind kids waiting to punch each other on a Saturday afternoon. By the time Black Tusk was wrapping up, kids started chanting “Exh-umed, Exh-umed, etc.” between their songs, which was rude, but definitely flattering. We are a band that never does one-off gigs, so I'm always a little nervous about playing cold- I like to rehearse for a week and then start playing a bunch of shows in a row. I never feel like we really hit our stride until about four shows in. We had a good friend of ours behind the sound board, Alejandro from Nausea, Dia De Los Muertos, etc. and also, not coincidentally our rep at Fernandes guitars (yes, that is a plug!), so the sound was killer onstage and the energy from the crowd was definitely there. Until security started clamping down, we had lots of stagedivers, which helps me have a good time for sure. It was weird playing at five in the afternoon or whatever time it was, but it was kind of nice to get the show done early. After defusing any post-show compliments with a myriad of reasons why I thought we sucked, I went back later and saw some of the show on youtube, and it was actually pretty good. At any rate, we headed back to our uncharacteristically swanky hotel down the street, the Grafton (thanks Scion!) and showered and changed before heading for the after party at a bar whose name completely escapes me at this point. It's always good to see our friends from Relapse, since we aren't often in Philly, and they're virtually never in California. The party continued until about 5am when I finally caved in and crept off to catch some z's and wait for the inevitable hangover to descend.
I Rot Within / Death Knell / Limb From Limb at the Roxy in LA
We had already been denied visas by the Brazilian consulate at this point, who warned me that if I applied for the wrong visa again, I would be banned from Brazil for ten years. Needless to say our experience at the consulate was less than enjoyable. We used the unexpected week off to get a bunch of shit done, though – like buying a van, which was huge. So Mike (Hamilton, our peerless percussionist) and I were very busy while Rob (Babcock, bass and vocals) and Wes (Caley, guitar and vocals) presumably were drinking pina coladas and eating bon bons in the comfort of Southern California. At any rate, the time quickly came to hop on our flight to Spain to undertake the first proper leg of our 2012 tour cycle – a run of headlining dates with Rotten Sound and Magrudergrind appropriately titled “Grind Over Europe”.
In the 90s, there had been two “Grind Over Europe” tours, the first featuring our friends in Haemorrhage, Dead Infection, and CSSO, and the 2nd featuring Hemdale, German grinders Nyctophobic, and (surprise!) Exhumed! I had always thought those lineups were classic and last year hatched the idea to do something similar. We couldn't have asked for a more brutal, in-your-face package. Magrudergrind specialize in one-to-two-minute bash-a-thons of unbridled fury with a decidedly punk edge, our label-mates from Finland, Rotten Sound generate a Swedish Death-Metal infused racket that has earned them the reputation of being one of Europe's most intense Grind bands. Usually when we tour with Metal / Death Metal bands, we feel like the odd men out, being the only band with punk influences, but on this tour, I felt like the other bands pretty much made us sound like Dokken! Mind you, I do love Dokken, so that wasn't so terrible, but it was interesting being the “least punk” band on a tour for once! We were greeted at the airport by the same driver we had on the last European tour, a delightful Czech gentleman named Mikael Svindelka. He's a great driver, has killer taste in music, takes us sightseeing when possible, and puts up with our foolishness, farts, and slovenliness. He actually was recommended to us by Land Phil of Municipal Waste / Cannabis Corpse – thanks dude!
Anyhoo... Our first night in Barcelona was insane. I was beyond jet-lagged, had already lost my iPod on a connecting flight we barely made due to airline delays, and we of course got trashed the minute we hit the club. We arrived the same day as the first show, so there was no time to adjust to the time change, get acclimated or anything like that. We managed to make time for beer, though. The schedule was so tight because we originally were allowing time for the Brazilian dates (which you'll remember were canceled if you've been following along), but the result was that we arrived mere hours before our set. We were thrown straight to the wolves. The energy in the room was great though, and the first show went really well – much better than most of our European shows last year, which was a relief. The next day in Almeria, the madness continued with a trip to the local metal bar (yes, my American friends, those are a thing in Europe) after the show ending in more alcohol-fueled stupidity on our parts. Seville was more of the same.
Distorted and Twisted To Form in Barcelona
I think by the time we reached Portugal, I was finally starting to get adjusted to being on tour (though the time change still hadn't quite set in yet). I remember curtailing the intensity of the partying a bit in Lisbon, getting it back down to somewhat manageable levels. The sound guy in there told us his favorite band was W.A.S.P., so we treated him to a partial rendition of “Wild Child” during our soundcheck which usually either makes people want to hug us... or vomit. The venue was tiny and right on the water, and the promoter was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He insisted on having us try some local seafood (it was delicious) and the backstage was full of all kinds of local delicacies and crazy appetizers. The next day we played in Porto, another city right on the water (I guess all of Portugal is pretty close to the water if you get down to it) where Rob and I managed to get out and explore a bit and take some nice photographs of the local scenery. Either that night or the following one in Santander, we raged extra hard in the hotel room and Keijo from Rotten Sound ended up taping a hotel telephone to his head. Finns are dangerous with their gin and bubble water!
Kristian from Rotten Sound knows how to party.
Rob and Keijo are still working on it, however...
For some reason, every time we've come to Europe since last year, we've only done one show in France. And it is invariably a good show. Last year our show in Strausbourg with Cephalic Carnage was the best show of the tour. This show, in Toulouse was also killer. It was at a youth center type place, but judging by the posters there, they have tons of hardcore shows there. The food was great (French food is delicious – best bread and wine ever!) and the show was too. The jet lag was still killing me, though. I was actually caught taking a nap in the balcony / backstage area during rotten sound's set. We ended up having two shows in Switzerland, which was weird. Swiss people are... how do I say this? Generally pretty reserved. The whole country is clean and beautiful, but very sterile. The audience the first night however, was the exception that proves the rule. The show was in a town called Sursee, and was noteworthy for a few reasons. Firstly, it was a good show in Switzerland, secondly we hung out with a bunch of American Air Force folks who were nice enough to bring us some Cool Ranch Doritos and Double Stuff Oreos, and thirdly, a very nice young lady asked us if we could help her propose to her beau during “The Matter Of Splatter”. I'm a sucker for a good ol' fashioned happy ending, so I brought the guy onstage and called him out on being with his girl for eight years and not proposing yet. Needless to say, they left the show engaged. We don't just melt faces, we melt hearts as well. We managed to do some sightseeing the next day in Martigny at a nearby medieval fortress which was cool, and our hotel was really swanky, so a good time was had by all, probably even the very polite and typically Swiss audience. From Switzerland, we headed South to Italy for a show in Milan. Last year, Rome had been one of the highlights of our tour, Milan was a different story. The show was in a weird club in the middle of an industrial area, and the vibe just wasn't all that happening that night. It was good to catch up with old friends from Brainwash and Cripple Bastards though.
After Italy, we were heading into the home stretch, Eastern Europe. There's something about Grindcore and Eastern Europe that just goes together like beer and pizza, peanut butter and chocolate, sex and violence, cocaine and... well, you get the picture. We hit Zagreb in Croatia first, and despite a considerable amount of difficulty finding the venue, not the least of which was due to Croatian customs officials, we finally arrived, to find a huge spread of delicious food and excellent beer, followed by a packed house of maniacs to play to. We hadn't played in Croatia for years and years, and it had obviously been way too long. Feeling good, we headed to play our first show in Hungary. Budapest was a truly gorgeous city, incredibly cheap, and full of extremely beautiful women. I would move there in a heartbeat. The show was excellent, actually sold-out even, and the energy in the room was awesome. Unfortunately, the promoter turned out to be kind of a shitbag, and some confusion over getting paid in Euros vs. Hungarian Forints (that are worth pennies on the dollar) led to an alcohol-exacerbated shouting match between pretty much everybody and a lot of confusion. The next day, we got out into the city for a bit of sightseeing, which was cool. When the dust settled, we realized that we had been shorted about $150 from our guarantee, which was a bummer. Originally, we were scheduled to play in Romania, but the show ended up getting canceled and we added a door deal show at a local metal bar in Vienna at the last minute. In only a week and a half, the promoter managed to get over 100 people in the door, and we had a great time. That show was more like a party than anything, and everyone relaxed a little and as usual, drank way too much. The next day was further east, in Slovakia.
Decrepit Crescendo in Budapest
I always get Slovakia and Slovenia confused, but we had played Slovenia in '11 with Cephalic Carnage, which was one of the better shows of that run. Slovakia ended up being killer as well. Like I said, Eastern Europe, man! The last two dates of this leg were in the Czech Republic, which has always been one of our strongholds. The Prague show was packed, and locals Gride were awesome. The last show was in Ostrava, which still has the total Eastern bloc vibe going on. Boxy Soviet-era apartment complexes are everywhere, and there is a lot of urban decay. Regardless, the show was near capacity and fully raging. At one point there were so many stagedivers during our set, there was an actual dogpile on the stage. I caught up with friends from Malignant Tumor, and Wes discovered one of his new favorite bands: Nuclear Vomit. Shots were gulped, beers were downed, and it was bro-hugs all around as the Rotten Sound dudes departed for an early flight from Prague to Helsinki the next morning. That night, the Magrudergrind lads and us were literally the only occupants of an extremely Soviet, extremely 70's hotel replete with faux wood paneling, bizarre light fixtures and long-empty conference and banquet halls. It actually might have been kind of spooky, if you're into that sort of thing. We spent our last night together listening to old-school hip-hop and getting toasted. We piled in the Magrudergrind van to catch a ride to the small village where our old friend Curby of Obscene Productions lives. After bidding the Magruder duders a fond farewell, we had five days off to kill.
Casketkrusher / The Matter Of Splatter in Ostrava, Czech Republic
We spent a couple days at Curby's house with his longtime girlfriend and their three kids. It was nice to relax, bathe regularly, eat vegan food (Curby is a militant vegan, and serves only vegan food at his awesome Obscene Extreme festival every year in Trutnov – not coincidentally, we were booked to play this summer), and just sit and watch tv, even if it was in Czech. After a couple of days of vegging out, we headed to Pardubice, to hit the Pilsner Urquell pub and watch the local football (aka: soccer) and hockey matches. The next day it was off to Cesky Krumlov to see one of the fanciest castles in the country and visit my old friend Vlakin from Czech grinders Ingrowing. We hit the Budweiser (here they call it Chechvar beer due to copyright restrictions) brew restaurant and had a great time bar-hopping. The bartender at the Singer Pub in town was actually a huge Exhumed fan, and hooked us up with free drinks and a bunch of t-shirts for the pub, which was awesome! Finally we headed to Prague for a day of tourism before we flew out to Helsinki. Curby was an excellent host / tour guide, and we headed for Scandinavia well-rested and ready for some northern comfort.
There was a lot of this occuring during our time off in the Czech Republic
Hanging with the kids at Curby's!
We had only played a festival in Northern Finland previously, so we really didn't know what to expect for the Helsinki show. The venue, Virgin Oil Co. was extremely nice, great stage, helpful staff, excellent food menu, and pretty big. I always get worried playing someplace for the first time when it's a nice club and pretty big – the opportunity for failure in that scenario is huge. This time however, everything worked out great. The openers, Cannibal Accident and Torture Killer were both good dudes and good bands, and the place was filled out quite nicely. We had a great time, and it was strangely kind of nice to be playing shows again – having a few days off was actually a bit weird. The following day, we left our very nice hotel and headed out into the mid-March Finnish cold to get on yet another plane – this time to London Heathrow.
If ever there was a clusterfuck of an airport, it would have to be Heathrow. Luckily, getting in actually wasn't too bad, after having our work permits cleared by customs. We had the night off and grabbed our bags and gear (we didn't hire the van and driver until the next day to save a couple bucks) and headed to airport Ibis hotel, which was a bit nicer than we had expected. England is great, but it's fucking expensive, even worse than the rest of Europe, especially since the pound is stronger than the euro, which is stronger than the dollar. The next day we were picked up by the affable Mat Hocking, who had been our driver last year when we did a couple festivals and a handful of shows with Atheist. In fact, Mat actually met his girlfriend on our tour in Paris. Between that, the Swiss marriage proposal, and the other marriage proposal during our show in Rochester last year, it's safe to say that Exhumed is a band that helps everyone except ourselves in the romance department.
This would be our first time playing in most of the cities on the UK leg of the tour, but Britain is such a small country, the drives were mercifully short compared even to our Europe dates. We kicked it off in Bristol, where we met up with the Anaal Nathrakh guys, who were doing the four shows in England with us. For whatever reason, they wouldn't be accompanying us to Ireland for our two dates there. Bristol was a fun gig, and the local openers were a great grind band called Merciless Precision that played with us the following night in Cardiff (in Wales). The Cardiff show wasn't quite as good as Bristol, I'm sure the fact that it was on a Monday didn't do us any favors, but it was still a good time and the vibe was there. After the gig, we were on the road that night to catch the ferry to Ireland.
Having never been to Ireland, I was a little underwhelmed by just how... British it was. I was also surprised to not see redheads everywhere. But what can you do? At least people did have those charmingly indecipherable Irish brogue accents there. Belfast was a lot of fun, and we even had time to do some sightseeing the next day, including downtown and a lot of the area where the IRA violence took place back in the 80s. Unlikely as it sounds, we actually grabbed a burrito for lunch before heading to Dublin that wasn't half bad. As soon as we hit the club in Dublin and loaded in, we took off to see the statue of Thin Lizzy bassist Phil Lynott, which was about a fifteen minute walk away. We hit the pub where the statue was and had a few beers before heading back for the show. The show was okay, nothing spectacular, but we had a good time partying at the bar with the kids before driving for another early boat ride back to Britain. We met up with the AN boys again in Manchester for a good show, and our second to last before heading back to the good ol' US of A. The run ended on a high note in London, with a tightly packed room of maniacs having a what Mick Harris would have undoubtedly described as a “Total Holocaust Doss”. Unfortunately, our flight left early the next morning and we were unable to party in London on Saturday night... Weak. At any rate, we boarded our flight after some excessive baggage fees courtesy of the assholes at Air France and headed home for four days off before starting our “Bowels Of Goreporate America” run.
Vacant Grave in London
I'm doing the best I can to simultaneously write the new album (five songs in the can, thank you!), design T-shirts for our upcoming tours (Summer Slaughter + more TBA very soon) update this blog, read some books, have some sort of social / family life, etc. so please be patient. Cannibal Corpse / Black Dahlia tour anecdotes coming very soon. Oh yeah, and you may have heard I filled in for five shows on the Death To All Chuck Schuldiner / Death tribute tour in my spare time. So lots to cover. And recover from. To be continued very soon.
I'm a firm believer that there are certain criteria you have to fulfill to be in an actual band - and one of the most important is that you have to play shows. That's what bands do: they write songs, they rehearse, they record, and they play shows. If you don't play shows, you're a "project", not a band. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. Our current logistical situation, with myself and affable sticksman Mike Hamilton in the San Luis Obispo area, six-stringer and beer repository Wes Caley in Arizona, and bassist / vocalist / perpetual brunt of height-related jokes Rob Babcock in Orange County California, you can probably guess that we don't fulfill the "rehearsing" criteria I mentioned above too often. That said, we do play a lot of shows. Last year, we played 88 shows in sixteen countries, and we didn't get started until April.In case you live in Europe or North America and somehow missed us, don't worry, because 2012 looks to be just as intense.
We started off February 11th, with a corporate-rock cash-grab extravaganza: a free Relapse Records showcase with our labelmates Tombs, Revocation, Black Tusk, and Royal Thunder sponsored by everyone's favorite car company / bizarre benefactor of free shows, Scion Motors. You can read a review of all the craziness here.
Here's
"I Rot Within" live at the Roxy. You can also get a good sense of what
complete dicks the venue was being to the kids diving.
As you may have heard, we had to cancel our scheduled dates in Brazil due to issues with our visas - it became a total clusterfuck of a nightmare, let's leave it at that. I am totally bummed about the whole debacle, but trying not to dwell on it too much. At least we have a bunch of other tours coming up. Next week, we head to the olde country for our "Grind Over Europe" tour with Rotten Sound and Magrudergrind for three weeks. For those of you who aren't European grindcore nerds, "Grind Over Europe" was a tour that the late, lamented Morbid Records put together in the mid-90s with Haemorrhage, Dead Infection and CSSO. They did a part II in 1997 with Hemdale, Nyctophobic, and... drum roll, please... Exhumed. I thought it would be fun to resurrect the franchise and get on the road with some awesome bands that love blast beats as much as we do (or probably more!).
Exhumed live on the Grind Over Europe II tour in (the appropriately named) Rotterdam, Holland back in 1997. Don't worry, I have no idea what we were playing here either.
At any rate, once we wrap up that run, we head to the UK, land of tea, crumpets, bad teeth and all of my favorite bands (I'm looking at you Napalm, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Ripcord, Extreme Noise Terror, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Moose, Chameleons, Angel Witch, Diamond Head, UFO, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Amebix, Discharge, Crass, etc. etc.) for a week with Black / Grind maniacs Anaal Nathrakh.
We'll also hit Ireland for the first time, which means Wes and I can go visit the Phil Lynott statue, drink whiskey, and copiously weep at the loss of the greatest songwriter the world has ever known.
The Ireland dates are basically just an excuse to see this.
At any rate once we leave Ireland and England, or as I call the UK "basically America, but with castles and shittier food", we'll have a few days off before we hit the road with Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik on our way to meet up for a month of shows as direct support for this band some of you may have heard of. What band, you ask? Fucking Cannibal Corpse.
That's a month-long run, all over the good ol' US of A. Once that's finished, we'll head north from the Sunshine state to meet up with yet another North American tour which hasn't quite been announced yet. Suffice it to say we'll be doing a few dates in the northern midwest and leftward and several shows in the land of the McKenzie Brothers - yup, Canada. After that all wraps up, we'll finally get a bit of time off - and it also will be fucking June.
The average Canadian citizen. There is also another guy yelling "Leafs Suck!" behind them.
Oh, I almost forgot, this July we're doing the Obscene Extreme Festival in the Czech Repubilc - pretty much the biggest Grindcore party in the fucking world, with Nasum, Asphyx, and Discharge. Lineups don't really get better than that, dude.
And after that, it's back to North America for Summer Slaughter with Cannibal Corpse (again! stoked!) and a ton of other bands that may or may not have been announced yet, so I'll keep quiet about them here. I'm getting way too old for this shit! 2012 may not bring the end of the world, but it just might succeed in killing little ol' me. After all of that madness is concluded, we're going to try to hole up in a recording studio and crap out yet another record of unlistenable garbage in a continuing effort to fulfill our record contract and see just how much of Relapse's money we can waste over a fourteen-year span.
In keeping with the theme of discussing our live exploits, I've posted a couple of live shows for your listening... I was going to say pleasure, but that might be a stretch. How about just "for your listening". That's pretty good broken English - kind of like how people used to always send letters asking to "trade for your stuffs" back in the early '90s. Good times, bad grammar. At any rate, these two shows are almost a decade apart, have 100% different set lists, vastly different line-ups and should be good for a laugh or two. Up first is a live recording from a show we did in 2004 in Vancouver. We were touring for "Anatomy is Destiny" with Uphill Battle supporting, which was convenient since Danny Walker was playing drums for both bands on that tour. The lineup for Exhumed at that show was yours truly on guitar and vocals, Danny on drums, Leon del Muerte on bass, and Mike Beams on guitar and vocals.
The second show goes waaaaaaaaaay back to 1995, back when there was no internet, people thought that Pitch Shifter were "the future of metal", and I could still fit into my Sodom "Obsessed By Cruelty" sleeveless shirt but could not yet legally drink. One of the best things about this recording is how obvious the complete disinterest of the audience is. I remember this show distinctly because I had asked for the day off of work at my job at Tower Records (remember them? They were a record store chain. Remember those? They were neat.) and they shut me down, so I had to call in sick like a complete dick. A couple of my supervisors tried to trick me into admitting it, but back then I was too good at lying to fall for it. Oh, to be 19 again, when I just didn't give a fuck about anything and worked even crappier jobs that I have in my 30s. Anyway, the lineup for this show is myself on guitar and vocals, Ross Sewage on vocals, Col Jones on drums, Derrel Houdashelt on guitar, and Matt Widener on bass. We had just recorded the "Horrific Expulsion of Gore" demo the preceding summer, which was getting great reviews in tons of fanzines and getting traded all over the world - but no one in the bay area was into it at all, as evidenced by the crowd at this show. You can also observe that the stage banter Ross and I were employing had a really, really long way to go in those days.
If you want to really dig into the vaults, you can check out a show from 1992 in its entirety here - if you can make it through the whole thing in one sitting, you're a braver soul than I. In my defense, I wasn't even 17 yet when this show happened - the other guys were 17, Ben was 19 or so at the oldest. And no, I have no real explanation for the shorts. The really cool thing about that link, is that you can check out Phobia, Mindrot and Immortal Fate sets from the same show there as well! Plutocracy also played that day, and almost started a riot when they lit an American flag on fire onstage. Good times!
Well, one of my new year's resolutions was to post more downloadable stuff here on this blog, so I decided after the Exodus post last week, I should keep it coming. This week we have some tabs for a few Exhumed songs. First up is "The Matter Of Splatter" - the best-known song from the "Anatomy Is Destiny" record, written by departed axe-slinger Mike Beams. This has some signature Beams stuff, tons of rapid-fire non-stop alternate-picking riffs, and jumbled, chromatic note patterns that are a bit difficult to discern and make the fingers on my left hand stumble over each other on the verse riffs. Col and I really insisted that every song have a typical rock song structure - verse, chorus, verse chorus, bridge, verse chorus, and when Mike brought this tune to us, we immediately caught on to its structural simplicity. It was exactly what we wanted to hear, and exactly what the "Anatomy..." record needed. On an album weighed down by some of our longest, often needlessly intricate song-structures (see prime offender "Under The Knife"), "The Matter Of Splatter" sticks out by being nice and straightforward. It was the no-brainer choice for the video single from the album. If you want to work on your alternate-picking technique, look no further, but good luck jamming to the record, as the meter is very, um... "organic". Oh, and the other thing about this song is that the discerning listener will notice an uncanny similarity in arrangement to "Damage Inc."
The official music video for "The Matter Of Splatter" - I don't think anyone in the band actually liked how this came out, but what the heck.
Next up is one from the first record - "Open The Abscess" - again, jamming to the record for this song is virtually impossible - not only is the timing completely by feel, but the guitar tone is virtually indecipherable. Even immediately after we recorded the record, none of us were happy with the production. But, what can you do? It's one of those "couldn't replicate it if we were trying to" kind of things. Anyway, this song is actually pretty similar to "Matter of Splatter" structurally, but the riffs are totally different. I was kind of trying to capture something like a Death / Grind version of Destruction's "Bestial Invasion" when I wrote this. The whole song is really built around the vocal hook, which is sort of unusual in this genre. Until "Anatomy...", this was pretty much our most well-known song, and we still usually use "Open..." as our set closer. Enjoy grinding this one out, kids.
I've posted this version of this song before, but in case you missed it - here's a little "Gore Metal" era nostalgia from the Western US leg of the "All Guts, No Glory" tour, as we're joined onstage by Monsewer Ross Sewage and Mike Beams...
Rounding out this post is a couple moldy oldies... I happened to have these already transcribed, so I figured what the heck. Nowadays instead of sitting around and showing the other guys older songs riff by riff, I just give them the tab, which they then ignore and I end up sitting around showing them the songs riff by riff. But - after that - they have something to refer to and I don't have to keep doing that. We used to do Septicemia in the set when we were touring with Danny, and we actually tried to re-record it as a bonus track when we re-recorded "Necromaniac" and "Forged In Fire" for "All Guts, No Glory", but after bashing out 17 songs in 2 days, Danny was physically and mentally burnt, which was totally understandable. We did however, dust off "Excreting Innards" for the first round of shows we did last year, which was pretty fun. "Excreting..." I actually wrote while I was still in high school, so it's pretty simplistic, which is probably it's second best quality, right behind its merciful brevity.
"Excreting Innards / Slaughtercult / Limb From Limb / Eruction (Wes' guitar solo) / Forged In Fire" live in Norway - my voice is shot to shit from watching Voivod the previous night, but you should get the idea...
Exhumed live at Baroeg in Rotterdam, Holland in 1997, leading off with an intro that should be familiar to anyone who has the new album, followed by the first two songs from the "In The Name Of Gore" split - "Horrendous Member Dismemberment" and "Septicemia" - back when we were the sloppiest band in the entire universe, and when that Possessed shirt still more or less fit me... Ah, the good ol' days!
If, for some very odd reason, you're looking for more Exhumed tab, check out this earlier blog here...
I've been meaning to post more downloadable stuff on here, so here you go. Don't say I never gave ya nuthin! Happy New Year, folks! Cheers! - Harvey
You
know, like most folks out there, I get down on my life and myself and
get frustrated and shit, but really I'm a pretty lucky guy. I've been
fortunate enough to get to travel all over the place playing
atrocious, aggravating music for like-minded nutsos and become
friends with some of my favorite musicians from the underground. On a
few occasions, I've even got to play with them. Most folks know that
I got to play guitar for my favorite Death Metal / Grindcore band
Repulsion for a number of years. That was really a great time.
Scott (Carlson) and Matt (Olivo) are both great dudes and taught me a
lot about music and provided me with a zillion anecdotes and insights
from the origins of the Death Metal scene. And, they also turned me
onto Riot, for which I am eternally grateful. I dug their
“Fire Down Under” record so much that when I started my
Metalli-deth “Arena Thrash” band, Scarecrow we
ended up covering that tune. Playing in Repulsion
was a total Death Metal nerd wet-dream come true, and one of the
easiest jobs in metal. Basically, I just showed up, played my
favorite songs, and then got a couple beers and a few bucks. It
really doesn't get better than that.
Scarecrow "Swords And Tequila" - and yes, I know this song is way out of (extremely limited) vocal range.
I
want to take the opportunity here to set the record straight on how
that all came to be. I first met Matt and Scott at Maryland Deathfest
in '03 when both Exhumed
and Repulsion played.
As far as I remember, that was the last Repulsion
show with the original lineup. A couple of years prior, I had,
through my job selling records direct to stores for Necropolis
Records back in the '90s (when that was still a thing), happened to
stumble upon the phone number of the legendary (at least in Flint,
MI) Doug Earp (RIP) – the man who paid for the recording of
“Slaughter Of The Innocent” - or as it's better known today,
“Horrified”. Being a massive Repulsion
fan, I kept Doug on the phone for the better part of an hour, soaking
in every detail he could recall of the recording process, (mostly the
engineer's disbelief at the band's sound) and any other bit of
Repulsion minutae I could wring out of this incredibly nice and
patient man. Doug was obviously bemused and stoked that someone was
so interested in the record and was nothing but a gentleman as we
spoke. I mention that conversation because, by the time I actually
met Matt and Scott I probably knew as much about the recording of
“Horrified” as anyone who wasn't actually present possibly could.
I think their reaction was a mixture of flattery, amusement and
bewilderment when I proceeded to nerd out on their (very gracious and
patient) asses.
Repulsion with the original lineup at MDF '03
Fast-forward
a few months later and Repulsion
was offered a show in Spain, and for whatever reason, original
drummer Dave “Grave” Hollingshead decided that he didn't want to
travel overseas and opted out of the show. The first person Relapse
recommended for the job was, of course, my best friend and long-time
partner in grime, Col Jones. Anyone who has heard the Cretin
“Freakery” record can attest that Col has perfected and improved
Dave's legendary drumming style, so he was the perfect fit for the
job. Since Matt and Scott both live in LA, Col needed someone local
to practice with, so I set about learning the Repulsion
set to rehearse with him so that he'd be primed and ready to jam with
the elder statesmen when the time came. It was sort of like helping
your best friend get ready for a date with a girl you'd been in love
with for years. You're happy for the guy, but you're also jealous as
hell. Anyway, as the date of show drew nearer, guitarist Aaron
Freeman decided that he didn't want to do anymore shows with the band
either. Well, luckily for me, I was already jamming with Col, knew
all the songs, and was one of the biggest Repulsion
fans on the planet... So Col graciously recommended me to the guys,
and things went from there. Thanks are due to Col for helping me get
my foot in the door with the band, and congrats to my successors (I
quit the band after our shows with AtTheGates,
right before I moved to Hawaii), two of my favorite guitarists and
people, my former partner in the Exhumed
twin-axe attack, Mike Beams, and one of my oldest friends, Marissa
Martinez of Cretin,
who has nailed the Repulsion
writing style better than anyone not named Scott, Matt, Dave, or
Aaron.
Repulsion with Col and I in LA at the Murderfest in '07. I think we all have much cooler hair now, except Col, who has always had cool hair - at least since 11th grade anyway.
What
a lot of people don't know is that I actually spent a night fronting
one of my other favorite bands of all time, Exodus.
When I was rehearsing for the first Repulsion
show, I had just started working at Alternative Tentacles Records,
via the recommendation of their General Manager at the time, Dave
Adelson (who now runs his own awesome label, 20 Buck Spin, full
time). I was living in the South Bay and the AT office was in
Emeryville (right between Oakland and Berkeley) so the commute was
horrible, especially with the Bay Area's notoriously atrocious
traffic. I had some car trouble on the way home Thursday night and I
opted to take Friday off work to get my car fixed, since taking the
bus or train would literally take several hours round-trip. I was
awoken by my phone that morning- a call from an unknown 510 area-code
number. Since I am kind of a hermit and I hate
talking on the phone, I let it go to voice-mail and checked the
message an hour or so later once my car was at the shop. To say I was
surprised to hear Gary Holt on my voice-mail would be the
understatement of the century. I called him back immediately and he
told me that Zetro had just quit the band, and,
if I wasn't doing anything the next night, Exodus
had a show in Mexico City and needed a singer. I had to think about
it for a second, because to be honest I was intimidated as hell, but
I knew I would be kicking myself for years if I didn't jump on this
opportunity.
At the airport with the Exo-dudes, I'm the idiot in the middle with the shit-eating "I can't believe I'm doing this!" grin.
A
bit of quick background, I had met the Exodus
guys in Europe in '03, when we had a day off in Austria and went to
their show with NuclearAssault, Grave,
and Mortician. I got
super hammered, accidentally made out with a fat chick, threw up, and
ended up backstage partying with the Exo-dudes. They had a day off as
well and ended up seeing one of our shows or something, and they
somehow put it together that this kid that was at the front row 13 or
more times during the 2nd
Baloff era of the band, screaming every lyric to every song, was also
the singer for this Death Metal band, Exhumed.
In fact, a week before Baloff's death, Dekapitator
had played a show with Exodus
at the Covered Wagon in San Francisco. At any rate, they knew I was a
Bay Area local, sang for a Death Metal band and at least knew all the
words to the “Bonded By Blood” album. So as a last resort, they
rang me and asked me to fill-in for this show. All those years back
in middle school screaming along to my favorite records were finally
coming in handy! Now, when is Voivod gonna call me when Snake has a
sore throat?!?!
I
had a truly amazing time in Mexico City, and the whole show is really
a bit of a blur looking back, but it was an amazing night. One thing
that's really worth mentioning is the kids at the show. They didn't
care that I wasn't Zetro or Baloff, they just really cared that a
band that lost their singer 2 days earlier didn't cancel on them and
did whatever it took to come down and play for them. They were
nothing but wonderful to me, and I can't thank them enough. I didn't
know what to expect, I thought people were going to be really pissed
off or something, but mid-way through the first song, I looked down
and saw a kid with a “Gore Metal” shirt on, and started to feel
like everything was gonna be okay. The Exodus
guys asked me about going to South America with them the following
week, but I needed to be available for Repulsion
and I didn't want to have just started a new job working for an old
friend just to turn around and quit within the first month. If I had
just gone for it, who knows what would have happened... My liver and
brain would probably have been destroyed several times over by now!
When I heard “Shovel-Headed Kill Machine” a couple years later, I
knew that Exodus was
back to full-strength and then some, sounding better than they had in
years. In the meantime, I got to play in Repulsion
for four years or so, and years later, my own goofy band has a new
album out that people seem to like, so I think
everything worked out pretty well all the way around.
I've
had the audio recording of this show for years, but out of respect to
Exodus, I've been
hesitant to share it beyond a few close friends, but when I recently
saw them on the Slayer
tour in Calgary last year (thank Satan they don't have to play at
shitholes like the Covered Wagon these days) Gary and Tom (and Rob
for that matter) gave me their blessing to post the audio from the
show. It's very raw, just a guy in the audience with a hand-held tape
recorder, and my vocals are pretty shredded as the show goes on, but
it's at least good for a laugh – or in case you need to remember
really obscure, random Metal trivia facts, haha! If you want to
nit-pick and critique my performance, go ahead, but keep in mind I
had literally no
rehearsal with the band, and one day to learn the lyrics to (at the
time) new songs like “War is my Shepherd”, “Shroud Of Urine”
and “Scar Spangled Banner”. We ran through those tunes and
“Blacklist” at soundcheck, “Blacklist” was a little rough so
we dropped it. Everything else was just done on the fly. It was a
pleasure and an honor to share the stage with one of my absolute
favorite bands of all time and I want to thank those guys again for
letting me do it, and for giving the go-ahead and share this
recording with the fine folks of the interweb. That said, I would love to see any video of this show, if such a thing exists. This was before literally everything was on youtube, so I've never come across any footage of it. If you have it, get in touch!
