Musical Chairs With JACK & DYLAN From DEAD POET SOCIETY

Interview by Kris PetersBoston metal outfit Unearth return to Australia for the first time in over eight years next week for a run of shows in support of their new album which will be out this May.After having to postpone due to COVID in 2020, Unearth finally get to deliver on their promise to be back with a series of headline and festival shows starting in Adelaide on January 20.They will be supported by The Ascended and Complexant in Adelaide, Canberra and Newcastle as well as headlining the borderline Destruction festival with those same two bands plus King Parrot and local supports in Brisbane (Jan 21), Sydney (Jan 27) and Melbourne (Jan 28).Vocalist Trevor Phipps joined HEAVY earlier today to discuss the shows and new music."We were scheduled for May 2020," he began, "and it couldn't happen for obvious reasons. Matt (The Ascended) stuck with us the whole time. Every three or four months during the pandemic he would reach out to us, saying that he wanted to keep the tour going, and sure enough here we are ready to come back. So he's a true legend for seeing this thing through and we're very excited to be coming back. This will be our eighth time. We front loaded it with a bunch of tours early in our career and haven't been back since 2015."In the full interview Trevor talks more about the tour and what to expect, the festival shows with King Parrot, the new album including the exclusive release of its title, playing new music at the Australian shows, the early days of the band and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

14 Jan 202310min

Interview by Kris PetersMelbourne rock outfit Torrential Thrill have always conveyed the sound and image of life.While undoubtedly deep in terms of lyrics, the band has never proclaimed to have an agenda despite the fact their subject matter has roots in events that affect each and every one of us on a daily basis.After teasing their potential with two previous albums, Torrential Thrill have taken their first major steps on the road to the holy rock kingdom by going all out on album number three in terms of EVERYTHING.Cited as the band's "most prolific and ambitious album yet", Torrential Thrill's new album, State Of Disaster - which is due out on April 1 - is an opus more than five years in the making and one which promises greater production, greater songs and more substance.They will launch new single High Society on January 30, a song which reflects the bands new found outlook and paves the way for a collection of tracks that looks set to introduce the Melbourne rockers to a much larger demographic.Guitarist Steven Morrell sat down with HEAVY to go into more details."We haven't really strayed too far away from the ethos that the band has always gone with," he offered when asked about the musical direction of State Of Disaster. "And that is... TT is kind of a blue collar working class band. A lot of the context of our songs are around hardship, corruption, the relentless pursuit of power, but also loss as well. It's not all dark, there is light in there as well. There's plenty of up-beat, happy songs celebrating the good times as well, but when we started this thing we were never gonna be one of those bands who sing about drinks, chicks and rock and roll all night. We've always wanted to have something that had a little more substance. This band was never geared to be a roll of the dice to be the next main thing coming out of Vegas. It was always going to be an on the ground, local, working class band that hopefully connects with a couple of punters from more of a realistic point of view. This album's pretty much the same. The album is called State Of Disaster, and I don't know if you remember when we were going through the lockdowns we had a State Of Emergency and a State Of Disaster and the politicians had a catch phrase for everything to describe the next thing that we were going through. It's not a political album. It's not having a crack at COVID, or having a crack at anybody about that. It's a reflection on where we are in the world and where the world is at."In the full interview, Steven talks more about the make-up of State Of Disaster, why it took so long to get out, how it is an improvement on previous albums, the next single High Society, its awesome film clip, touring plans and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

12 Jan 202318min

Interview and words by Erin EddyCanadian heavy rock band Twelve Years Today have their sights set on 2023 being a big year.With a fresh new single, Reveal The Pain, already being well received, news at Camp TYT is that a full length album is on the way.This is no small feat for the duo, James and Jason, who have endured their share of challenges over the lifespan of the band.Independent and self-produced, they began amassing a loyal fan base, helped largely by the fact that they are very interactive on Twitter, and have created an inclusive community that calls themselves the TYTArmy.But in 2021 the band became victims of a false copyright claim against them, the result of nothingmore than internet trolling, culminating in their music being pulled from Spotify without notification,losing their streaming numbers, and the boys were left feeling like their hard work was all fornothing.“Quite frankly, it pisses me off to think about it,” Jason scowls. “One morning someone mentioned[our song] Unveiled, is blacked out on Spotify.”He explains that after some digging, they were left pretty exasperated. “Someone basically made afalse copyright claim on our music. There’s no arbitration, there’s no process to have that claimreviewed, it was as simple as [someone] reporting a song and they removed it.”“What pissed us off is that we didn’t get any notification that there was any wrongdoing or allegedwrongdoing.”With no support to reinstate their music, they had to admit defeat and move forward with whatthey could salvage, and with some time and the unending support of their fans, move forward isexactly what they did.Last year saw the release of the EP Escape The Grey as well as the re-release of two of their mostpopular songs that were part of the false copyright take-down, Debt Of Sin and Say Goodbye.In early 2022, James and Jason went from living within driving distance to one other, to living incompletely different parts of the country with a significant distance between them. Thus, thelearning curve of creating music via distance with the aid of technology became another challenge to navigate.“With regards to the difficulties or challenges of being so far away, so far it’s worked out prettyflawlessly,” says Jason, “James, luckily, is a quick learner and we face timed the process to record his vocals and send me all of his stuff.”“It’s been a great experience, doing this new record with all these miles between us,” James adds.“We think it’s definitely worked out really well so far. You guys are hearing the result of it right nowwith our new song Reveal The Pain; I recorded my vocals exclusively here and that was the guineapig. In my opinion it worked out really well.”HEAVY spent time chatting with both Jason and James recently and got in depth regarding the saga of the Great Spotify Take Down of 2021, which is an interesting story in and of itself. Have a listen to the interview to get the full details on that as well as a very cool story about how their song lyrics literally saved someone’s life, and learn about the past, present and future of Twelve Years Today.You can stream their latest single, Reveal The Pain now – yes, it is on Spotify! – and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more new music from Twelve Years Today later this year.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

12 Jan 202355min

Interview by Kris PetersEnuff Z Nuff have rocked the lighter side of the metal world for the better part of four decades, with their enigmatic and irresisiable frontman Chip Z Nuff ushering in generation after generation of music lovers and taking them under his wing.Following the release of their 20th album Finer Than Sin late last year, Enuff Z Nuff return to Australia as part of the Glam Fest extravaganza, which kicks off in Brisbane on January 25 before hitting Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney over consecutive days.Glam Fest sees a mixed bag of genres, with artists such as Faster Pussycat, Pretty Boy Floyd, Eclipse, Wednesday 13 and Tuff joined by a host of local acts.Chip sat down with HEAVY to talk about the tour and plenty more."I'll tell you Kris, I'm really looking forward to Australia," he enthused. "Glam Fest 2023 is really shaping up to be something that's absolutely massive. It's not your usual stadium tour where you're out there and you have to pay $200 or $300 to see some of your favourite MTV bands. You get them all for a nice price, and they're all coming from North America and around the country. Faster Pussycat - fantastic live. We did a tour with them last year and it was absolutely incredible. Every show completely sold out. You've got Pretty Boy Floyd, Eclipse, can't wait to see my buddy Wednesday 13, Tuff will be out there - my old friend Stevie - it's a bridge truck full of bands from all around the country and getting together and celebrating hard rock and heavy metal and it's gonna be absolutely fantastic."The last time Enuff Z Nuff were out here was at the very start of COVID, with the band very fortunate to make it out of the country before lockdown."The last time was February 20th, 2020, and I remember picking up a newspaper at a restaurant - I never read the paper - and it said the prime minister of transportation in England says if you're a foreigner don't come here. And we were on a major tour. We started off in Australia and we were gonna work our way through England and then come back after the U.K and do Italy, Spain and France and it all got shut down. We barely made it home on time. As a matter of fact, when Enuff Z Nuff flew back to the States I remember it was on the news where the President was saying they are shutting down the borders. It was incredible (laughs). We did seven shows on that tour with Winger - those cats were great, I love Kip Winger - and they were all very well attended and we thought 'would we ever get a chance to come back here again? Well, we said prayers and they've come true. We're coming back!"In the full interview Chip talks more about Glamfest, who he is most looking forward to playing with, the different genres represented and why that's a good thing, what they plan on doing in Australia, their recent album Finer Than Sin, settling in to the role as lead vocalist, how difficult that decision was, last years Beatles tribute album Hard Rock Nite, the early days of Enuff Z Nuff, future plans and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

12 Jan 202317min

Interview by Kris PetersBrisbane outfit Young Lions are on the cusp of dropping their fourth album, the wonderfully titled Make A Rainbow And Put It In The Sky, which is out on January 6.An extremely challenging album for the band in many respects, it is also an album that signifies the continued musical growth of the band who are coming off the back of the universally praised previous release Mr. Spaceman in 2015.It has been a long while between releases for the band, with Zach Britt sitting down with HEAVY to run us through the new album."It has been such a journey," he affirmed. "I'm so excited. This one is really cathartic to get out. Every album, I'm sure you would understand, has such a distinct journey in itself but this one for us has been quite arduous. Coming through what was 2020 to 2022 for music, entertainment, and the whole world with super big changes for all of us... we wrote this album from 2018... the whole thing has been crazy. Where it was getting mixed got flooded, there was just all these insane things that happened on the way. That's kind of where the album title came from. There's just been this huge, big effort to put something out that will give people a smile at the end of the day."Musically, Make A Rainbow And Put It In The Sky distances itself somewhat from it's predecessor, with Britt saying it was important Young Lions created a new body of work rather than rehash a winning formula."Everything started from a personal point of view," he measured. "A lot of the time with albums before this it would start with the ex guitarist Dan coming to us with all of the beds, but I write everything from scratch as a song standing alone and then took those songs to the band which was something we hadn't done before. We really relished the process that way. I think we got more dynamic than ever before. It might not necessarily be the heavy offering that people got on our first album Burn or the soft element we had on Blue Isla, but it's got a crazy journey. I think it's a little more exploratory than anything we have done before, even coming out of Mr. Spaceman, but there's some heavy hooks in there and some real ragers. I think people who know what we are usually about are going to be able to get a kick out of this one too."In the full interview Zach talks more about the musical side of the album, living up to expectation, resisting the temptation of recycling tried and true material, the musical journey of Young Lions so far, this years 10th anniversary of the band and what they have planned, future shows and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

5 Jan 202313min

Interview by Kris PetersGerman symphonic metal outfit Beyond The Black faced a daunting challenge after the standout success of their 2020 album Horizons.The bands fourth album, Horizons saw Beyond The Black in more experimental mode, refining the best characteristics of previous albums Songs Of Love And Death, Lost In Forever and Heart Of The Hurricane but also introducing newer elements that reflected the bands growth.Rather than repeat a winning formula, Beyond The Balck elected to further develop their sound by reintroducing the basic fundamentals of metal - guitar, bass and drums - and working them in with their existing sound to create an album that is a true reflection of a band at the peak of their powers but still with so much to give.The result was so overwhelming Beyond The Black decided to lend their name to the body of work, which will be released on January 13.Vocalist Jennifer Haben joined HEAVY to discuss the album in greater detail."I'm very proud, to be honest," she smiled, "because I think that this could be the best album we ever wrote. That is very good to say, right (laughs)."We ask Haben why after five albums Beyond The Black have decided to lend their name to one of their albums."There are many things why we decided to do that," she offered. "First of all, this album was written in the pandemic, so we had a lot of time to think about some deeper questions. Many people out there in the world asked themselves deep questions, I know, stuff like where am I standing right now? Is what I'm doing right now what I really want? We did the same for our band. What is Beyond The Black? How do we sound? What do we want to talk about and all these questions. We always try to do that before every album and before writing songs but we never had the real time to go deep, to intensively think about it. This time we really had the time to do that before going into songwriting and recording, so we answered these questions and we're confident in what we think about our band at the moment. I think this is one of the reasons why this album sounds more confident than every single album before. It sounds like one piece. It sounds confident."In the full interview Jennifer talks more about the musical make up of the album, the singles and how they sonically represent the complete body of work, the pressures of following on from a successful album, launching the next chapter of their career, touring plans and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

5 Jan 202310min

Interview by Kris PetersSouth East Queensland metal outfit Distorted Views made a massive impact on the local music scene with their debut single Propoganda in early 2021, with their blending of metal and rap elements managing to transcend the tried and true formula into something refreshingly unique and original.Since then they have released a couple of equally as impressive tracks in Suffocate and Glitch, but haven't cracked that next level they are undoubtedly capable of.After a quiet 2022 which saw the band play only one live show, Distorted Views took stock of the band and themselves and elected to streamline the project into a three piece, enlisting Zach on vocals and promoting Cameron to lead guitars with Jordan steadfast behind the kit.Understanding the transitional phase ushered in by these changes Distorted Views are adopting a steady approach to reigniting their aural assault, starting with the recently released single Interference.Cameron sat down with HEAVY earlier today to bring us up to speed."We've had a few people message us that aren't directly friends or family," he smiled when asked about the reception for Interference, "which I always love because it's a neutral opinion. You always feel like your friends and family are guaranteed to say it's awesome (laughs) so when you get people telling you they're chucking it on their gym playlist or it pumps them up then that's awesome to hear. It's in Drop E, which is, at this point in time, the lowest song we've recorded so it's quite low there, especially in the middle with that breakdown. It's a dissonant note in Drop E so it's bloody heavy."We push Cameron on the musical aspect of Interference and what the band were going for with it."Essentially, we wanted to blend low tuning stuff but still have some sort of melody in there," he measured, "and not just be constant chuggs. As much as we all love the chugging and that heavy part it provides more dynamics when you create those leads and stuff. It was originally meant to be dual guitar, but now I'm just gonna use a pitch shifter being that I'm the only one playing it now. In regards to the song, it's just something to hype you up. It's about that attitude of whatever you want to do in life and not letting anyone try to say 'why are you doing that? You should be doing this'. That's why in the lyrics it says 'You push me, I push back, that's the way it'll be'. It's got that grit to it but at the same time it's got that melodic element as well."In the full interview Cameron talks us through Interference in more detail, talks about the new look three piece Distorted Views and what it means for the band, how it will affect their sound, how the band has changed musically from Propoganda to now, reinventing their live sound, playing more shows, drip feeding new material, their podcast Something To Scream About and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

4 Jan 202310min

Interview by Jimmy GlinsterHEAVY had the honour of conducting backstage interviews with a selection of bands for the final Good Things Festival show in Brisbane recently, which we are going to drip-feed you just because we can!One of the highlights - especially for Jimmy - was getting to chat with the legendary Dino Cazares who was playing guitar with Soulfly for the tour. After a rocky start which included Dino getting blasted by Gloria Cavalera and his tour manager, things soon settled into an entertaining chat.The sound quality may be affected in patches due to the interviews being recorded live with a full festival raging behind us, but sit back and enjoy the fully immersive experience of each band as they navigate the day. They are also sparsely edited for maximum effect.Full video interviews will be published in the near future.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

30 Dec 202211min