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converge

Converge are back with a new 7-inch. The Massachusetts hardcore/metal luminaries' one-two punch of "I Can Tell You About Pain" and "Eve" marks their first new music since 2012's spectacular All We Love We Leave Behind LP, and precedes a new Converge album due out sometime later this year. Each cut showcases two very different sides of the band. "I Can Tell You About Pain" is a two-and-a-half-minute napalm blast that hearkens back to the Bostonians' no-B.S. hardcore roots; while "Eve" swaps brute force for dynamic nuance, arriving at the same roiling peaks by way of an epic, doomy seven-minute ascent à la Neurosis (with whom Converge are set to tour later this month).

"I Can Tell You About Pain" arrives paired with a grim visual directed by Tony Wolski. After swigging down what appears to be an ordinary glass of milk, our protagonist proceeds to hallucinate sentinent trash bags and beautiful, illuminated Jane Does, so entranced that he almost forgets the blood gushing out of his nose. It's a dream world, to say the least. Watch that Lynchian clip, plus listen to "Eve," below. "I Can Tell You About Pain" b/w "Eve" is available now digitally via Epitaph and physically via Deathwish.

Max Jam_0.jpg, Napalm Records
Max Cavalera, in the studio for 'Psychosis,' 2017
courtesy of Napalm Records

For the past year or two, Max Cavalera has been revisiting his history as a musician while continuing to pave new paths. In addition to touring behind the 2014 Cavalera Conspiracy album Pandemonium and Soulfly's 2015 record Archangel, Cavalera and his brother/Cavalera Conspiracy drummer Iggor Cavalera celebrated the 20th anniversary of Sepultura's groundbreaking sixth album, Roots, by playing the record in its entirety on the Return to Roots tour. And in October, Soulfly will pay tribute to Nailbomb, the Nineties side project Max did with Fudge Tunnel's Alex Newport by playing the group's sole studio recording, Point Blank, front to back.

As cool as that should be for old-school thrash fans, it's a little surprising since Cavalera generally isn't the kind of guy to reflect over past achievements or plan too far into the future. He prefers to focus on the present, maintaining a voluble presence as one of metal's most aggressive, tenacious pioneers. Right now, he's putting the final touches on the next yet-untitled Cavalera Conspiracy album, which the band recently finished recording at Platinum Underground Studio in Mesa, Arizona.

Still, Cavalera's recent trips down memory lane have served him well. The new Cavalera Conspiracy album will feature aspects of styles he's explored throughout his career — barreling death metal, blunt thrash, jagged mid-paced groove metal, industrial noise and tribal rhythms.

"It's got everything, man," Cavalera says. "We have songs that sound like [the first Sepultura full-length, 1986's]  Morbid Visions and [1989'sBeneath the Remains. There's the thrash element of [1991'sArise. And then there's new stuff on there that sounds like the stuff we enjoy right now, like Full of Hell, Nails and Godflesh."

One track, "Hellfire" is driven by syncopated electronic beats and features Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick. "That's one of my favorite new tracks right now," Cavalera says. "And Godflesh have been one of my favorite bands forever, from 1989's Streetcleaner on. When [Broadrick] said he would be a guest on the record, I was like, 'Oh my God! My mind is going to explode!'"

As inspired as Cavalera was by Broadrick and his scorching, primal industrial metal, the greatest creative catalyst for new Cavalera Record was producer Arthur Rizk (Code Orange, Power Trip, Inquisition), who despite being considerably younger than the Cavaleras, was a guiding beacon for the new album. Not only did he encourage the Cavalera brothers to explore new more contemporary sounds, he also inspired them to revisit their early roots.

 "I think getting Arthur to produce this record was the coolest, greatest idea we've had in years," Cavalera explains. "He brought the life out of me and Iggor and got us to do stuff that normally wouldn't have come out. I felt like he woke up something that was sleeping inside of me for a long time. He went in and summoned beast and it came out raging."

REVOLVER How did Arthur encourage you to revisit your Eighties style of performing? Did he say something specific to you?
MAX CAVALERA He's really knowledgeable about the metal underground, and he also knows everything about our past, from Bestial Devastation on. And he knew when was a good time to draw from that stuff. I'd be doing vocals and he'd played me a little bit of a line from Schizophrenia. And then he'd say, "I want that Max. Can you bring me that Max?" And I'd be like, "Yeah, I think I can do that." It wasn't exactly the same because I was, like, 15, when I recorded that and my voice sounds different now. But it was close. He wanted a real classic Sepultura death-metal voice for some of the songs. He called it "the chicken nuggets Max." You know it's so perfect, classic. [Laughs]

How did you meet Arthur and what made you decide to work with him?
We wanted someone more from the underground to work on this record because I've been listening to a lot of that stuff. We just happened to meet him when we were on the Return to Roots tour. We talked for a little bit and he showed me some stuff that he's done — Power Trip and Code Orange. I was really intrigued. He's, like, the new blood. So me and Iggor talked about it and I said, "Well, maybe we should take a chance and work with him. We could really do something different." I give him a lot of credit for the album coming out like it did. I think it's gonna surprise a lot of people.

What kinds of experimental touches did you bring to the songs?
We did one song that we knew was going to be instrumental. We were talking about "Kaiowas," which we did on Chaos A.D. And the long desert jam on Roots. So we started messing around with this atmospheric stuff. Arthur had just come from Africa. He was in Uganda for a while and he made all these great recordings of tribal drumming and even sounds of nature, like frogs that were making all this fucking noise. So we put it in the song as an instrumental. And then we put the guitars on top of it and let it build. Those kinds of songs are cool because they break away from all the other heavy thrash stuff on the album. It's kind of like prog metal — well, it's as close as we get to it, anyway. It has a real voodoo vibe so I'm inclined to have the word "Voodoo" somewhere in the title.

You've been touring so much with Cavalera Conspiracy and Soulfly. When did you have time to work on a new studio album?
I started working on it last year between the Roots tours. I'd come home and write like a madman. I actually became obsessed. I had a routine. I'd wake up, start writing and then I'd go until 10 at night every day, just writing and collecting riffs. Then I'd put everything away. But I wanted to get a good start on it so by the time the other two guys came on board we had some really solid riffs to work with.

 Did you have an abundance of material to work with?
The guys come in and they're like, "Stop already! We have enough for five records!" I'm like, "Good — let's select the best out of those five to make one killer fucking album." That was my theory. We had a lot to choose from and it was a real productive time. I was inspired by all this new shit I was listening to. Gatecreeper and Nails and the other bands I mentioned. And honestly, it was one of the easiest records I've done because I wrote so much for it and I was so prepared going into it.

Did you do any improvisational jamming or invent any music on the spot in the studio?
The was only one time Arthur asked me to just come up with a riff, and it was for the song "Crom." Crom is the god of Conan the Barbarian. I went off to watch the whole movie before we tracked vocals. There was a big TV in the living room and we just sat back and watched the movie.

Did seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger inspire you?
Oh, that's such a cool movie. I decided it would be cool to have the voice of a little kid saying, "Conquering barbarian tribes," because that sounds so vicious. So we got my grandson Rocky to do it. Having a little kid saying that kind of reminds me of Ozzy Osbourne's Diary of a Madman, where he's got all those little kids laughing in the end, and it was his own kids. I lifted Rocky and put him up to the mic and he said, "Conquering barbarian tribes!" It sounds fucking awesome! To me, it sounds like a little Conan reacting to seeing his mom decapitated by these conquering barbarian tribes. It's really sick. And I told Arthur the chorus for the song reminds me a little bit of Nailbomb. It's got a little bit of an industrial vibe to it.

You have a track called "Impalement Execution." That's a very death-metal title.
It's a super-heavy song. The first part sounds like a classic Slayer riff, and then we have a piece in the middle that we called "Thrasher's Delight." We put eight riffs together and it's all different kinds of chugging and mosh parts. There are four vocal parts and four guitar solos between the riffs. On the chorus, we did this cool thing with my voice, so it sounds like a windstorm. Me and Arthur did six takes of it and then we doubled it so it sounds like this storm is going on while I'm singing.

Were you motivated by anything going on in your life or in the world when you worked on these songs?
I was feeling really angry about different stuff. Even stuff like shit-talking on the Internet and all this bullshit that I had nothing to do with. I did a song called "Judas Pariah" and it's pretty much about all those people. I just don't understand it. It's like the Palestinians and the Israelis. No one can get along and it's like our war we don't want to be in. It's fucked up, man. I always said music is a weapon, so I just thought, "Fuck it, man. I'm just gonna let it all out." Especially in front of all the shit-talking trolls. So I wrote something really brutal. And I'm not just saying, "Fuck you." I'm talking about soul-stealing shit. The ending has a riff that sounds a little bit like Celtic Frost's "Procreation of the Wicked." And Arthur put some keyboards on it so it has this classical sound that's fucking huge, like To Mega Thereon on a Cavalera album. It's pretty much a black-metal song.

Is there anything political on there?
We have a punk song that's about the whole Donald Trump thing. There's lines like, "Not my president, not my god, not my king." It's called "Negative Fucks." It's a name that Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan came up with as a possible name for our side band Killer Be Killed. I love that name. It's so punk rock. We had this great riff, which sounded like Discharge meets Nails meets Napalm Death, right to the bone. I'm singing about this propaganda hate machine. The chorus goes, "Negative fucks! Negative fucks!" And in the background I'm doing this voice that sounds like a demented psycho laughing. And then there's "Terrorist Tactics," which is all about the shit going on with ISIS. The whole extremist propaganda, where if you don't convert to their kind of Islam they will kill you.

 How many songs did you write for the album?
Just 10. We only used what we needed. Eight are full-on thrash songs, from the beginning to end. They're like Morbid Visions/Beneath the Remains/Arise/Nailbomb-type shit. And then there's the tribal, African voodoo song and the Godflesh song "Hellfire," which is about the drones that they bomb people with. I did a lot of reading about drones for that and there's a movie called "Eye in the Sky," so I use the name in the lyrics. I can't wait to hear what Justin does with it. We purposely wrote it with drum machines so it sounds like a Godflesh song.

Did Iggor fly over to Phoenix for tracking?
Iggor came over from London and he was sick for the whole time. He had a really bad flu and felt horrible. I felt really bad for him. I even thought maybe we should reschedule, but time was a factor. We had to do it. So he went to the hospital and got some antibiotics and a shot of something and he did the whole record. He sounded so great. I was joking, "Man, imagine if you were healthy when you recorded? It would be fucking insane because it sounds great already when you're sick." But maybe he was pissed off that he was sick, so he was playing extra hard. He was on fire the whole week he recorded.

igor.jpg, Napalm Records
Iggor Cavalera, in the studio for 'Psychosis,' 2017
courtesy of Napalm Records

You tracked the album at Platinum Underground Studio, which is the underground facility Body Count used for their new album.
That's how I found out about it. I was invited to do a song for Body Count album so I drove there and the place was awesome. It's like a bunker and it's owned by John [Aquilino, who was the guitarist in Eighties band ICON]. We were there for three weeks and it was really cool. You step out of that place and you're in the fucking desert, but inside is just all high technology with a thousand amps and a huge drum room. It was perfect because I got to stay home [in Phoenix] and then just go to the studio to do the record.

You don't have a full-time bassist right now since previous Cavalera Conspiracy bassists Johny Chow and Tony Campos are playing with Stone Sour and Fear Factory, respectively. Was that a problem?
No, not really. Maybe we'll hire a fixed bass player down the line. For this record, I just figured Arthur was a great musician. He's a great guitar player and he can play bass so I said, "You go ahead and play the bass parts." And he did some really cool shit that reminded me of the parts on Ozzy's Diary of a Madman album. You have the riff going through and the bass does the rhythm with the drums.

 Is Arthur a perfectionist?
He knows what sounds good, but sometimes he leaves things the way they are even if the guitars aren't completely in tune or if I sang a line and my Brazilian accent came through so it wasn't perfectly American sounding. Once I said, "If you want to go back, I could fix it." Any other producer would have me do it correctly but Arthur just laughed. "It's cool. Leave it. It sounds like live punk shit." It was more important for him to get the vibe right and capture the spirit of the moment of live performance than to make everything perfect. And I love that.

In October you're planning to play the Nailbomb album Point Blank with Soulfly. It's a great album, but it's from 1994 so there's no 25- or 30-year anniversary to tag the tour to. Why play this record now?
The idea came out of the Roots tour, which was so great. We're going to do it from October to mid-November. I talked with the guys in Soulfly about it because we have a great band that can do great riffing. Then we just have to recreate the sound effects on the album. I called Alex [Newport, Nailbomb's cofounder] and asked for his blessings. He didn't want to be involved, but he was into it. And he's cool to have my son Iggor sing his parts. Not only did he give us his blessings, he told me where to get all the effects for the sounds we need.

Why didn't Alex want to be involved?
He just wants to do studio stuff now, and I totally respect that. That's his life. Maybe next year we can convince him to do one show somewhere. But right now it's just us and we're going to recreate the album entirely. It's going to be the same as if you're listening to the record. We have three weeks of rehearsals set up for Nailbomb and we're going to make sure everything's perfect. We have the original backdrop, the KKK guy with the target. It should be perfect for the political climate right now.

Who else will be on the tour?
We're going to have Lody Kong, my sons' band. They are getting really good. They're kicking ass, writing really cool new shit. And we're gonna have Noisem and Cannabis Corpse opening, as well.

It sounds like you're making an effort to return to the underground.
Yeah, and in a way, it's like it was 25 or 30 years ago. That's when all the cool, new shit was happening, and that's why we're very lucky that we got to work with Arthur, who's very much a part of that. We're trying to keep the spirit of the underground alive. That's kind of what people want to see. We could play with bigger bands, but I think it's cool to have some really small but good underground bands. It goes more with the Nailbomb style. That record was really underground. No matter how big it got, to me, that's always going to be an underground album.

pageninetynine

Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate, Blake Midgette is his real name. The amusing surname is totally fitting considering his demeanor and stature: a tall, burly and jovial fellow with tons of stories and even more laughs. 

Midgette might be all smiles now, but back in the late Nineties he was quite the intimidating figure onstage as the vocalist for the screamo legends Pageninetynine. Blossoming out of Sterling, Virginia, Pageninetynine is considered one of the forefathers of the screamo movement alongside names like Orchid, Antioch Arrow, Saetia, Circle Takes the Square and more. In six short years, Pageninetynine released three LPs, several splits and changed the face of hardcore and punk as we know it with the release of 2001's Document #8. The record is considered to be pivotal for the genre, influencing legions of fans and providing the spark that would eventual lead to Touche Amore and many others. And then in 2003, following a particularly disasterous E.U. tour, there was nothing. Pageninetynine was no more. 

Cut to 2011, when seemingly out of nowhere, he and the rest of his Pageninetynine crew staged a reunion at Tony Foresta's Best Friends Day. The impact was massive, and fans from near and far flocked to the festival to catch the band's multi-instrumental/dual-vocal attack. Rumors began to swirl about the band's return, and promoters flocked to try to book the band for more dates. But then, just as abruptly as they returned, the band disappeared.

Midgette relocated to Brooklyn, New York, spending his time behind the bar a few nights a week — where he would catch the occasional glimmer of his old life. "I still get weird chills if I start a job and a barback has a Pageninetynine tattoo, or I see somebody wearing one of our shirts walking down the street," says Midgette about his semi-secret old life.

Then earlier this summer, Pageninetynine unexpectedly burst back onto the scene with the announcement that they would be reuniting for a week of shows this September with Majority Rule. Tickets for the string of East Coast dates — with the proceeds earmarked for various arts and LGBT causes — vanished immediately.

In the following interview, Midgette looks back at the legacy of Pageninetynine, his years away from the band and why now was the right time to reunite.

REVOLVER What kind of lead to the initial split? You guys just felt like it was over with?
BLAKE MIDGETTE
I quit.  [laughs] I think we were all about done, honestly. Just a lot of touring really fast, we added some new members and the chemistry musically was, I thought, better than it ever had been. But some of the guys had really big personalities and we replaced two guys who were kind of just solid with one guy who was totally miserable and another guy who basically was this huge, always drunk, always loud-and-having fun type who picked on people a lot.

When you're stuck in a band with eight people, it was a lot. We ran into some troubles with the van in Europe. We lost our driver and our van and we had to drive ourselves around for like a month and a half. No guide, none of us spoke any languages or anything [laughs], so just a bunch of dumb Americans. And everybody hated us because we had German plates so we would stop to ask for directions and they'd be like "fuck you." Everybody hates the Germans over there. It's amazing how racist Europe is against other white people.

So it was just kind of like you guys just got back from that tour and that was it.
No, I got really sick on the road. I got strep throat like pretty much on the plane ride over and I was taking like low level antibiotics to like stave it off for a while. And when it hit, it hit really bad. I was miserable. Throwing up on myself in the van. One of the guys was calling me a pussy. It got ugly.

When we took a ferry over from Germany to Sweden, we got there and I passed out in customs because my throat swelled shut and I couldn't breathe. They got me in an ambulance and the doctor's like, "You're in bad shape, you got a super high fever." And I was still singing like a day before that, just pummeling booze to be able to get on stage. And when I got better from that I was like, "This is miserable."

Me, Mike [Taylor], Chris [Taylor] and Johnny [Ward], we were always super tight. And I loved everybody else in that band too, but the core group of us were all best friends. Me and Mike specifically, we were super close. It turned into "I hate all of you," and when I realized that I didn't want to be around people that I considered my best friends, I was like, "I can't do this anymore."

So we were going through some shit where we would have to hire a new driver and a new van to go to England finish up some dates. And the guy wanted to charge a bunch of money and bring all his merch and we didn't even have room for all of us.  Everybody's arguing about it and suddenly I said "I quit! I don't want to do this anymore. Let's just go home." Then me and Mikey were like "Yeah, let's do that." [laughs] That was it.

There have been so many bands that have taken you guys' blueprint and…
And got famous [laughs]

And got famous. And also, I'd venture to say, cheapened and bastardized it a little.
Everything does that. I mean, it's music. It's all stolen. None of it's real. If somebody can do well with something that I was any small part of, even if they're like stealing something, it's fine. Good on them. I always called it art punk when people asked me what we sounded like. Wish that had caught on, it still sounds cool to me. All the bands that came behind us and did well, good on them man. As long as they're good people and they love what they're doing, I don't have a problem with it.

Are there bands in that larger genre that you listen to?
Nah. I've always been that way. There's certain music that I've always loved and I can always listen to on record. Hardcore has never been a thing I was super into. I liked a few bands like I like the noisier stuff like Deadguy and Rorschach. But to me it was all about the live feel of a band. And when I stopped going to shows I largely just fell out of it. I never really felt super welcomed in the hardcore scene anyway because around DC and Maryland, it's just so thuggy.  There's so many shitty guys in basketball jerseys starting fights and kickboxing.

I had a few friends in other likeminded bands, but once Pageninetynine broke up, I'd go see Pig Destroyer but that was pretty much it for me. I mostly just walked away from hardcore, period.

How did you meet Tony Foresta and how did this Best Friends Day thing come?
Pageninetynine played a show, I think it was in Richmond at Strange Matter or Twisters — I want to say with Lycosa and James River Scratch, which was Tony's band before Municipal Waste. It was just a fucking rad thrash band. We just played that show, we all had a good time. Tony was rad. We exchanged T-shirts and we've been like good acquaintances ever since. When I was living in Richmond, I would always go to his shows.

I don't know how it came about. Mike just mentioned to me, "Do you want to do this?" and I was like "Yeah, sure man, it'll be fun." I left the band I needed to get away from like the touring too much and all that stuff, but I never really wanted to quit being in Pageninetynine. I just didn't like what it turned into.

Maybe you guys just needed space at that moment.
Yeah, I mean, when the band broke up, we came back to the states on a plane altogether. I was living in a corner in Mike's parents' basement so like I just had a bed that's right here in the living room, so I would just like [sighs] "Cool, I'll grab some space from you guys" as they're like sitting there playing my fucking Xbox.

Me and Mike, we didn't really talk to each other for a couple of months and then one night we just both broke down crying "Hey man, this sucks. I don't know why we're so mad at each other." We were both like "I want to be your friend, I just need some time." I ended up moving out of his basement. We really didn't talk for like a while. But then, a couple months go by, we deal with the pain, and every time we see each other it's the same — best friends all over again, all the same old dumb jokes and shit.

And when the Best Friends Day shit happened I was 100 percent on board with it. I was like, "I'll keep playing shows." A couple people didn't want to. The shows we're doing now, they came about when Trump got elected. So it was half like, "Well, I would like to play some shows with the band I love before the world goes dead." And the other half was Katy Otto who said, "That Pageninetynine should do some shows for charities because the world's going to fucking need it. And you see it coming down the line with the sanctuary cities being taken away, Planned Parenthood, all that stuff, so it's almost like, "Who do you even give money to?" Katy was like, "Would you be willing to play some shows for a charity?" and I was like "Hell yeah." She was like "I'll talk to Mike" and then it just happened. So then I came aboard.

I think the most interesting thing is why are you guys going out with Majority Rule? And nothing against them but I feel like you guys could both do better monetarily for these charities.
Yeah, they're going on after the run of shows to play more stuff. As weird as it sounds it was never about the money, but now it would be nice to have it. Yeah, I guess I really wanted to play with Majority Rule. If we can give the money to charity while I have some fun with my buds, that's ideal.

It's interesting man, being like 15 years removed from the band. Seeing all the hype about it good and bad has been hilarious. Like I don't tell everybody I was in a band, because one, most people don't know who the fuck we were. There's people on my Facebook page that are like "Unpopular Opinion: I don't give a fuck about Pageninetynine." And I was laughing hysterically and said, "You know I sang for that band, right?" and he just liked the status and never commented on it again.

So you guys have all these dates and all that. And you wouldn't mind doing more shows?
No, I'd be fine with it. I would go and do a run of shows here and there and fly out to play things, that's fine. I'm not getting back in a van with those guys for two months at a time. It was fine when I was young, but now I feel like I'm too fat and old. I couldn't even fit in one of those bunks anymore. I don't think any of us have that in us.

I've always been interested in the concept behind how many guys you have in one group. Was it like a shock and awe thing?
Not, not at all. And honestly, when we started off it was two guitarists, George [Crum] and Mike [Taylor], me and Chris singing, this guy T.L. [Smoot], that I just knew from being around, playing bass, and Johnny [Ward] on drums. And it was kind of like we just wanted more friends in the band so we added Mike Casto as a third guitar player like, "Wouldn't this be dope if we had 3 guitar players?" And also it's fucking Casto and he rules. So we threw him in there and like, "Oh wait, this sounds awesome!" So and then we added Corey [Stevenson] on bass, because again, another one of our best friends. And then that was even bigger, fuller sounds. T.L. was a technically proficient bass player, but he wasn't like a field player, you know? Like Corey was very much like he could just get in the shit and really like he was more of a melodic bass player.

What do you think is your fondest memory from Pageninetynine?
I mean honestly one of my favorite memories is, and I think it was because it was so far after the fact, was Best Friends Day. When that happened, being on stage with those guys, I got goosebumps. And just me and Mike looking at each other like, "Wow, what is this?' 'Once you find yourself as a band and like what you're doing, every show is kind of magical and I think one of the reasons it was good for us because we played super short sets. We'd play like 6 songs then we would leave and people would be like "Oh we want more" and I would look forward to playing again. You know, playing was never the bad thing, it was the travel. But yeah, Best Friends Day was … just looking at all those guys again there's almost like tears, you know? Like wow, I can still feel things.

So all of these shows are now sold out months in advance. Does that feel like validation for you after all these years?
I always felt validated by what we did. The fact that some dumb white trash kids from Virginia could even do that, playing that kind of music, it always was insane to me. Even though we never got as big as Darkest Hour or a lot of the other bands that came from the DC area. Playing shows out of town, for me, I felt validated. Like, I wasn't supposed to do anything with my life. I was supposed to be like a carpet cleaner or like a guy that works at AT&T or something. You know? So the first time we played a show out in front of people with music, that was validation for me.

I'm excited, and the money is going to a good cause. I get to play music again with people I love. And Majority Rule, seeing them again, that is awesome. Even if nothing else comes of it, these shows are going to be great. There'll be more memories. We'll probably be able to eat better food because not everybody's fucking vegan anymore. I don't miss that shit, going on tour with people like, "Oh, I'm sorry, I only eat raw." God! Pick an apple off the ground you prick! I just want to go to Denny's.

I definitely don't miss all that shit. I don't mind anybody being vegan but there was nothing like a 22-year-old vegan like, "Uh, excuse me, I can't eat this. I can't play with this band, they're wearing shoes." It's fucking ridiculous. We played More Than Music Fest one year and there was like all these vendors. People with certain agendas for something. There was one who stood for just lobsters. These stickers just had a lobster and a pot with a circle and a line through it that said "Being boiled hurts. Lobster liberation now." Did you not like the cheddar biscuits? What happened to you at Red Lobster? It's so stupid like why only lobsters? Fuck rabbits? What's your deal?

Crustacean liberation, nothing else I guess.
Same with straight edge. I've done so much cocaine off of so many different straight edge tattoos. I just laugh like, "Can I do a bump off your tattoo?" "Okay cool." And it's a thing. It's funny to shit on it but they got those straight edge tattoos cause that was a thing they belonged to. You know? It was a scene. I feel like a dick laughing at it, but also like, come on.

It's a personal choice and once you start wearing it as a badge of honor then it becomes larger than that. And then there is the self-righteousness.
The badge of honor thing I'm fine with. The part I hate is just the violence. There's been shows we've played and I'll be outside smoking and somebody will come by and say "Smoking's cool, faggot." And I'm like, really? You're going to call me that because you don't like me smoking? So homophobic slang is okay?

There's so much backwards ass mentality in hardcore with stuff like that.

Rex Brown

Former Pantera bassist and Kill Devil Hill member Rex Brown has teamed up with Revolver to premiere "Buried Alive," the new song and music video from his forthcoming solo full-length, Smoke on This... "Buried Alive" touches on the aftermath of Dimebag Darrell's death and how Brown had to find himself in the wake of the tragedy and Pantera's dissolution.

Directed by Justin Reich (Zakk Wylde, Ace Frehley), the video was shot in Nashville where the record was recorded and produced. The clip features Brown and his bandmates — co-writer and guitarist Lance Harvill, rhythm guitarist Joe Shadid, Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly and keyboardist Caleb Sherman.

"Justin once again did a fantastic job," says Brown. "The video captures every bit of emotion I had when I was writing the song as it's a very personal song for me."

Brown also said of the new record, "My motto these days is 'Shake some shit up.' I've had my ups and downs, like anybody in this business. I wanted to feel like a true artist again, where I can write and record songs without worrying about any of the bullshit. This is just something else I'm doing for fun, man. And musical freedom. Fun has to come into it or I'm not going to do it. I've had a tremendous career and now I feel like I'm 25 years old again. This has given me that freedom I needed."

Smoke on This... is out July 28th via eOne Music. Physical copies can be pre-ordered here while digital pre-orders are available at this location.

ChelseaWolfe621.jpg, Bill Crisafi
photograph by Bill Crisafi

Chelsea Wolfe will release her sixth studio album, Hiss Spun, on September 22nd via Sargent House. In addition to the album announcement, she has released the first single, "16 Psyche." Check it out below.

Produced by Converge's Kurt Ballou, Hiss Spun features guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, Failure) as well as a guest appearance by Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, SUMAC) on the song "Vex."

"I'm at odds with myself. I got tired of trying to disappear," said Wolfe about the emotions and concept behind the record. "The record became very personal in that way. I wanted to open up more, but also create my own reality. I wanted to write some sort of escapist music; songs that were just about being in your body, and getting free. You're just bombarded with constant bad news, people getting fucked over and killed for shitty reasons or for no reason at all, and it seems like the world has been in tears for months, and then you remember it's been fucked for a long time, it's been fucked since the beginning. It's overwhelming and I have to write about it.

"The album is cyclical, like me and my moods. Cycles, obsession, spinning, centrifugal force — all with gut feelings as the center of the self. I got tired of trying to disappear. The record became very personal in that way. I wanted to open up more, but also create my own reality."

The album can be pre-ordered physically at this location or digitally here.

Hiss Spun track list:
1. Spun
2. 16 Psyche
3. Vex
4. Strain
5. The Culling
6. Particle Flux
7. Twin Fawn
8. Offering
9. Static Hum
10. Welt
11. Two Spirit
12. Scrape

Wolfe will also embark on an expansive North American tour throughout the fall with support from Youth Code. The trek will kick off on September 28th in Santa Ana, California at Constellation room and will conclude on November 4th in San Francisco at The Regency Ballroom. The full itinerary is listed below.

Chelsea Wolfe Tour Dates:
9/28 - Santa Ana, CA - Constellation Room
9/30 - Los Angeles, CA - The Regent Theater
10/2 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern
10/3 - Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole
10/4 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
10/6 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theatre
10/7 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall
10/8 - Dallas, TX - Kessler Theatre
10/10 - Nashville, TN - Exit/In
10/11 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5
10/13 - Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle
10/14 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage
10/15 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
10/17 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza
10/19 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
10/20 - Montreal QC - Le National
10/21 - Toronto, ON - The Opera House
10/22 - Detroit, MI - El Club
10/24 - Chicago, IL - Metro
10/25 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club
10/27 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
10/28 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
10/30 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox
10/31 - Vancouver, BC - Venue Nightclub
11/1 - Portland, OR - The Wonderland Ballroom
11/3 - Sacramento, CA - Ace Of Spades
11/4 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom

Riley Hawk may be best known as a pro skater, but he also has a psychedelic rock band called Petyr that just finished laying down a heavy self-titled record. Hailing from San Diego, California, the group summons influences from some of their favorite local acts such as Earthless, Sacri Monti and Harsh Toke — mood-altering jam bands fully immersed in skate culture. Below, Petyr — which, in addition to Hawk (guitar, vocals), features Holland "Smokey" Redd (guitar, vocals, keys), Luke "Slurk" Devigny (bass) and Nick "Juice" McDonnell (drums) — have premiered "Stairway to Attic," a jocularly-named single off the full-length, set for release on June 9th via Outer Battery Records.

Speaking of humorous song titles, Juice explains, "All of our song titles have their own meanings." When called out on "Texas Igloo," Juice fesses up to fornicating in a homemade igloo while on a skateboarding tour during a snowstorm in Texas. (For the full story, read on.)

Sub-zero sex aside, the new record spews fertile riffs and sage spooky vibes in a manner that would make Saruman the White proud. "We played shows for almost two years before we put anything out," says Hawk, who found the process to be more nerve-racking than putting out footage for a new skate video. "If people are like, 'This fucking sucks,' it hurts more, because you spent a lot of time and poured your soul writing into the songs." But with robust and cosmic tracks like "Kraft" and "Satori III" — coupled with exponentially lenient weed laws — Hawk and Co. needn't worry.

Revolver visited Hawk's house to watch Petyr jam and talk about the new record. While the guys were a little worse for wear, after an all-night bender at pubs they can barely recall being at, it definitely didn't affect their ability to deliver the goods — both musically and in the following hilarious interview.

REVOLVER So you guys were just telling me you only write songs when you're hungover?
RILEY HAWK
Or lack of sleep, or both. I swear, I think when we wrote "Old and Creepy" I didn't sleep that night. I just drove straight home from L.A. at like 4 a.m. and then I was playing guitar. But I don't know, I guess everyone's different.

The last time I interviewed you, you weren't in a band. How do you balance your skate career and music?
HAWK
I think I was just more caught up doing other stuff then, plus I had major injuries — I had surgeries on both of my ankles. But now I can just skate and then jam later in the day. We just kick it and write songs. Plus, I had a girlfriend back then that took up a lot of my time. I don't have a girlfriend anymore — maybe that's why it works.
NICK "JUICE" McDONNELL Let's make that very public. Petyr is single. [Laughs]

You guys have this psychedelic doomy sound. Is that kind of music what you guys mainly listen to?
HAWK
I wanted the vocals to have a specific vintage sound, kind of like Witch or Sacri Monti. We double all the vocals — it sounds cool and it's way less scary when someone is singing next to you. We're not, like, master singers or anything and we aren't trying to fake the funk. We're mainly about riffs. Earthless is one of our favorite bands, so we're obviously not opposed to sitting and listening to a riff for 30 minutes.

You guys recorded this record in Los Angeles?
HAWK
Yeah, and we stayed at an Airbnb right across from Barney's Beanery in Hollywood, where Janis Joplin had her last drinks. It was super fucking hot out. We have this little air conditioning unit in our jam room in San Diego. So I told my roommate Jacob that I would buy his train ticket if he brought that thing to Los Angeles. I didn't think he would, but when we picked him up, he came off the train with this R2-D2-looking thing with him. And we plugged it into the living room of the Airbnb and close all the doors and we all slept in the living room and turned it into an icebox. He said people weren't even shocked seeing him toting around an AC unit because it was so fucking hot out.

What was it like for you to record your first full album?
HAWK
With skating, it's so different — you feel way more exposed when you're putting out music for some reason. A lot of people said they like it, and I'm fucking stoked — so that's cool. I'm sure other people will hate it. I guess that's just how it goes.

You guys are going out on tour soon right?
HAWK
We are going out with Radio Moscow and there will probably be zero skateboarding involved, because they're a real-deal band with a schedule. Usually, when we go out, if we find a spot and skate it too late, we just show up late for the show. But on this tour, we gotta be on it. They hit us with this fucking PowerPoint presentation of all the dates, cities, set times and sound checks. But it's cool 'cause we don't have to do anything on our end, just get there. It's cool because they're one of our favorite bands — weird how it's come full circle like that. I had no idea that I'd be in a band and now we're touring with them.

petyr riley hawk 2, Eric Hendrikx
Petyr, 2017
photograph by Eric Hendrikx

San Diego has a massive scene of skateboarding and music partying. Is that the place to be right now? 
HAWK
Pretty much. Juice finds himself in the middle of that Venn diagram — the partying, the skating, the jamming, and then Juice is overlapped in the center. [Laughs]
JUICE Just stick me in the middle with a bunch of chicks.

And Juice, you're playing in several bands, right?
JUICE
Yeah, more or less. I just went on tour with Harsh Toke as a fill-in. But I play with Pharlee, too. Sometimes both bands play together and it's like I just jumped in a fucking swimming pool. I'm so wrecked, just sweating out all the booze. But the catch for me is I get double the drink tickets. That's my shit.

Holland, I heard Petyr kidnapped you from Salt Lake City.
HOLLAND "SMOKEY" REDD
I used to skate with Riley in Salt Lake City, and jam with Luke in my old band UFO TV. So I was just gonna come out for a skate trip and basically never went home.

Tell me about the song you've shared with us — "Stairway to Attic."
HAWK
Holy shit — we played this Red Bull contest aftershow and it was actually the bar where Houdini gave his final performance and collapsed before he died. We didn't know that until after. I lad left my Flying V at the bar — they said I could leave it overnight and it would be safe in the basement. It's spooky down there, with all these tunnels and shit. After I grabbed my guitar, we were just sitting in the bar and I came up with the riff that became "Stairway to Attic."

What does "Stairway to Attic" refer to?
HAWK
A lot of our songs have dumb names about inside jokes and weird sex stories and shit. The lyrics actually don't have anything to do with the title. Because most of these songs started out as jams without lyrics so we just called it fucking whatever. Technically, "Stairway to Attic" was called that because Juice lived up in the attic at Figgy's [pro-skater Justin Figueroa] house. You had to pull the stairs down from the ceiling and it was the last thing girls saw before they went up into his dungeon. It has nothing to do with "Stairway to Heaven," other than it's funny. And then we have this little song called "Middle Room," which is sort of this friendly peaceful room before the creepy ladder comes down leading up to Juice's lair.
JUICE A lot of our song titles have their own meanings.

I'm game — what does "Texas Igloo" mean?
JUICE
I was on a skate trip in Texas a while ago and they had a straight-up fucking snowstorm — super random. So we met these chicks at a bar and fucking MacGyver'd our way over to their house — they let us stay there. And they had built a full-on igloo in their backyard. I wanted to sleep in that thing, so I grabbed some couch cushions and went out there and partied in it, just putting beers in the walls. And then this chick fucking cruised in there — you know what happens next. But the cherry on top is that I woke up and found out that she was fucking married. She bolted in the morning and I went inside and told all the guys, because it was fucking crazy. And then she strolls back in the house later with said husband. He didn't know, but it was like — fucking Christ.
HAWK So listeners can leave the rest of the song titles to their imaginations. They're like little secret codes. Wait — actually, the song "Kraft" [everyone laughs] — we changed the title while in the studio, because the original title was too retarded. "Ballcuzzi" just wasn't subtle enough.
LUKE "SLURK" DEVIGNY I had my ex-girlfriend do that for me. I had her microwave some water, get a straw, and then I put my junk in there and let her blow away. I was seriously bored-as-fuck one day at my house and just said, "Let's do this, babe."

She sounds like a keeper.
JUICE
None of us have girlfriends. Let's make sure everyone knows that Petyr is very fucking single.

Visit Revolver's Facebook page on Thursday, June 8th, at 3 p.m EST/6 p.m. PST for a Facebook Live session with Petyr featuring a live Q&A and performance.

Danzig_PaulBrown_1.jpg, Paul Brown
photograph by Paul Brown

Fourteen years after kicking off his famed Blackest of the Black tours, Glenn Danzig is switching it up. This year, Blackest of the Black will be a two-day festival held at Oak Canyon Park in Silverado, California, on May 26 and 27. With a lineup featuring Ministry, Suicidal Tendencies, Corrosion of Conformity, Venom Inc., Discharge, Atreyu, Suicide Silence, Marduk, Butcher Babies, and Deafheaven — and capped off by Evil Elvis himself — the fest also promises such attractions as the Castle Danzig, "roaming demons" and "thrill rides." Danzig recently took a break from rehearsals to give us a preview of what fans can expect this weekend — including the first live performances of cuts from his new album, Black Laden Crown, and a special 25th anniversary mini-set of songs from his classic How the Gods Kill.

REVOLVER Why did you decide to make Blackest of the Black a festival this time around?
GLENN DANZIG
Well, it always kinda was … We're just making it more of a festival now. [Laughs] We're making it bigger. I started it because I felt there was a need for it in the U.S. Europe has all these great festivals and we have jack shit. Blackest of the Black has been growing and growing, so now it's time to do it this way.

You've played a ton of festivals over the years. What kind of dos and don'ts did you focus on when it came to putting together your own?
Try not to have corporate buy-on bands. [Laughs] When we did Blackest the first year, the admat actually said, "No rap metal and no corporate metal." [Laughs] Ozzfest was a buy-on and it was corporate metal, but the first year of Blackest was Danzig, Superjoint Ritual, Opeth, Nile, Behemoth, and Lacuna Coil. We did it at Universal [Amphitheater in Los Angeles] and Mesa Amphitheatre in Phoenix. That's where we started, and now here we are all these years later. You saw the lineup. It's insane.

What are the criteria when you're picking bands? Obviously you have to like them, but is there more to it than that?
Yeah. It's bands that have something to say that people might not necessarily be hearing. It also helps if you're a little dark. [Laughs] It also helps if you're more DIY or you've been through the ringer on major labels but you're still doing it. Bands like Ministry and Danzig, we've done that whole route, but we're still here playing. Look at Suicidal — they used to play shows with the original Misfits. Cred is a big part of it.

You've got some great legacy acts on the bill. You go way back with Suicidal, but what about Ministry and Venom Inc.?
I don't really know the Venom guys much, but I've known Al [Jourgensen] for a while and we've always talked about doing a Danzig/Ministry bill. It just never happened. I remember originally there was gonna be a Beavis and Butt-Head tour, and it was gonna be Ministry, Danzig and White Zombie. [Laughs] In between the bands, a screen would come down and Beavis and Butt-head would introduce the acts. The tour never happened, but everybody was ready to do it. So now Danzig and Ministry are finally playing together, and people are gonna be blown away. That day is gonna be crazy.

What can you tell us about this Castle Danzig that's going to be on the grounds at the fest?
Oh, it's pretty amazing. I haven't gone onto the set yet to check it out, but they've been sending me pictures of it. It's got faux stained glass inside, there's a blood bath with one of my comic book characters that's loosely based on Countess Bathory — there's a ton of stuff. You have to be 18 to go in, I think. [Laughs] If you bring your little kid, you're not gonna be able to go into Castle Danzig.

The poster for the festival also promises "roaming demons," a "sugar skull contest" and "thrill rides." What can you tell us about that stuff?
Well, you'll just have to go and see. [Laughs] Every day is a surprise for me. They keep springing different stuff on me and I'm like, "Cool, yeah." So I'll be as surprised as you when you actually see what's going on. It'll be pretty cool. If you're tired of the regular old festival, you're gonna have a great time. Plus, so many great bands.

You're going to be performing a bunch of songs from Danzig III: How the Gods Kill this weekend to celebrate its 25th anniversary. How does that album hold up for you after all these years?
We still do a track or two [from that album] in our regular set, but this time we're gonna do five or six songs from it. That album is a personal favorite of mine. It was the first Danzig record to crack the Top 20 on Billboard. It was also the first record of ours that I produced, and it broke us massively over in Europe. It was a really good record that people responded positively to. We took that tour to Irvine Meadows and people thought we were crazy to play there, but it sold out like a month or two in advance. That bill was Danzig, White Zombie and Kyuss.

Tomorrow we're gonna go out to my storage space and get the old stage props from the Danzig III tour. So if you're coming to the show, we're gonna have the gigantic gargoyles and I think I have the old backdrop, too.

You've got a completely different lineup today than you did back then. Do those songs feel any different with different guys playing them?
I actually have better players now. [Laughs] Not to dis the other guys, but these guys are just better. I'm really happy with my band. They're incredible.

You've got a new album, Black Laden Crown, coming out on Friday, which is also the first day of the fest. Will you be playing any songs from it at the show?
Yeah, we're gonna do "Last Ride" and "Devil on Hwy 9." We're rehearsing them right now to see how they're gonna sound, but I'm pretty confident that they're gonna be OK. We'd do more, but we only have so much time. [Laughs] I'll also be signing copies of the album on Friday night.

In the past, you've talked about your albums fitting into a conceptual arc. How does this album fit into that picture?
Well, that ended with Danzig 7. That was a good freeing-up process for me because it meant I could do whatever the fuck I felt like. But I think this one shows everyone where Danzig is now and puts everything that came before it in perspective. I think there's elements from all the Danzig records on this album, plus some new touches. I think it's a career wrap-up, for lack of a better explanation.

That makes it sound like there won't be another one …
Oh, I don't know. In 2018 I have the Danzig Sings Elvis coming out, and then we'll see after that. [Laughs] My plate is pretty full right now.

Are you contemplating retirement?
Well, I don't tour anymore. I just go and do a show here and there. After the last tour, I was like, "You know what? I'm not bouncing around on a bus for a month anymore." I'll go out and do two or three shows and come home, but anything other than that I'm not gonna do anymore. I think the last time we played Southern California was two years ago, so who knows when we'll do it again after this. [Laughs] Anyone who wants to see us should just come to the show.

Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch has premiered a new song from his band Love and Death. The track, "Lo Lamento," also features from LOVE AND DEATH, the band led by KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch, can be streamed below. Joining Welch on the track are BREAKING BENJAMIN's Jasen Rauch, who produced the song, JR Bareis (from ISLANDER and LOVE & DEATH) and Dan Johnson from RED. Head shares vocal duties on the track with Bareis.
Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/korns-brian-head-welch-releases-new-son...

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Steel Panther have premiered a live acoustic rendition of their song "The Burden of Being Wonderful." The track appears on their upcoming CD/DVD, 'Live from Lexxi's Mom's Garage,' which will be released February 26.

According to the band, "'Live from Lexxi's Mom's Garage' was taped in Los Angeles last October in front of a live audience of scantily clad woman (and one old creepy fat guy who somehow got a ticket) inside the uncharacteristically large and professionally lit garage of Ms. Foxx (Bobbie Brown, famous from the Warrant "Cherry Pie" video), who coincidentally also happens to be the mother of [bassist] Lexxi Foxx."

"It was so much fun playing our songs on these new wooden guitars in my mom's garage!" said Lexxi. "[Guitarist] Satchel says that he might be my new dad, but I'm not really sure what that means!" he added.

Check out the live performance of "The Burden of Being Wonderful" below and let us know what you think in the comments!

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photograph by Erin Marsh

Hard rock act Failure Anthem have announced a winter tour in anticipation of the release of their new album, 'First World Problems,' out January 22 via Razor & Tie.

The band will be direct support for Adelitas Way from January 16 through February 14. Dates for the Adelitas Way tour are listed below.

With Like a Storm
Dec. 15 – New York, NY – The Studio
Dec. 16 – Syracuse, NY – Lost Horizon
Dec. 18 – Battle Creek, MI – The Music Factory
Dec. 19 – Ringle, WI – Q and Z Expo
Dec. 20 – Janesville, WI – The Back Bar

With Adelitas Way
Jan. 16 – Scottsdale, AZ — Pub Rock
Jan. 20 – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey Bar & Grill
Jan. 21 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar
Jan. 22 – Tyler, TX – Clicks Live
Jan. 23 – Biloxi, MX – Kress Live
Jan. 24 – Pinellas Park, FL – England Brother Bandshell Park
Jan. 26 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
Jan. 29 – Greensboro, NC – The Blind Tiger*
Jan. 30 – Hagerstown, MD – Hard Times
Jan. 31 – Lancaster, PA – Chameleon Club
Feb. 2 – Stanhope, NJ – Stanhope House
Feb. 3 – Buffalo, NY – Iron Works
Feb. 4 – Toledo, OH – Realm
Feb. 5 – Flint, MI – The Machine Shop
Feb. 6 – Joliet, IL – The Tree
Feb. 8 – Libertyville, IL – Austin's Fuel Room
Feb. 9 – Spring Lake Park, MN – POV's 65
Feb. 10 – Rockford, IL – District
Feb. 11 – Merriam, KS – Aftershock*
Feb. 12 – Omaha, NE – Lookout Lounge
Feb. 13 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
Feb. 14 – Colorado Springs, CO – Black Sheep
May 7 – Concord, NC – Carolina Rebellion*
*Festival Show

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