Lee Harrison
Monstrosity
Pretty good. Just got back from a US run with Obituary. I filled in for the first four shows and so I just got back from that. Working to catch up on interviews and working things in general.
Definitely. In my mind we've never been away. We've just not been in the public eye but we've always been working on things and getting things ready for the album's release. It took longer than I had expected for sure, but I knew it would happen sooner or later.
We're glad to finally have it finished. We spent a long time making sure things were right with the recording and the art and all of the business part. It's finally finished and we can focus on doing some shows hopefully.
It actually did take place sooner. We've been connected to Metal Blade since 2004. Conquest Music licensed the album Rise To Power for the European and UK territories. It was the same for the Spiritual Apocalypse release. This was the third and final option for the contract and Metal Blade offered to take the album worldwide this time. So Conquest Music and Metal Blade worked out the arrangements and now it is out. In the past we had worked with Michael Trengert who has since passed away. Michael was the number two guy with Nuclear Blast and then Metal Blade so we go back to those times with him and that's how we originally connected with Metal Blade Europe. We are just glad everything came together with the release and that fans can finally hear it.
It was a little different this time since we did not use Morrisound as we normally do. Morrisound studio was sold so it's no longer available to us which worked out because we were reconnecting with Jason Suecof. We wanted to do something with him again so it made sense to go to Audiohammer to record the new record. It was very tedious, but we were able to spend the time and relax and not be stressed by the clock. We changed heads a lot and really focused on which cymbals we would use and really going back and forth listening to different takes to decide which toms we liked for instance.
You know we felt that Millennium was more technical so with In Dark Purity we dialed it back a little. I think it's the odd time signatures that can make it hard. We have songs like Solar Vacuum and The Proselygeist which are more straight forward and then there are songs like The Hive which has lots of twists and turns, timing wise, so that one I could see flying over people's heads. We like dynamics so I think there are peaks and valleys that go along with the new record. I look at it like it was a standard that was set and that we have to maintain from those early albums.
We definitely wanted to make a strong statement after being away for so long. We didn't really write different because we always want to use our best material. It is why the album is longer because we knew that since we had been away we had to give the fans a longer record.
It was the last song written for the album I had the riff during the first solo first. It kind of reminded me of Angels Venom with an extra count so I put that with the beginning part. Then somewhere the A riff came in and that's where the snare march thing happens so it just built from there. I had the title and just went with it and shaped the words to fit my concept. I just kept working on it and shaped it and made things work. The solos were kind of cool too. The one was supposed to be cut down I think, but we just left it. It was so over the top we decided to keep it.
The Proselygeist and Slaves To The Evermore are my songs. I have others but those are the main ones I would say. Slaves was supposed to have violin in the middle section but we decided to just keep it guitar and not get too crazy. Maybe down the road we could do other things but for this we wanted to just be the main instruments.
Well, the problem would be no one would get paid. The same people would go see Obituary and go see Deicide too. So while it may look good on paper the reality is there isn't enough people into this style of music to warrant that bill. What would be cool is if a bigger band could bring these bands out as support. A Metallica or Megadeth.. they may have already tried and financially it just didn't work.
We were offered some one off shows but we turned them down. We generally don't have good luck with those type of shows. Its better for us to be on a tour where the equipment is the same every night. We can get warmed up correctly and not just thrown in a bad situation with a bunch of other band's gear and all that... it can be hectic.
Thanks for the interview. Look for us in Europe after the new year we are planning a big 2019. See you on tour !!!
More results...