Showing posts with label Battlecross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battlecross. Show all posts

The rise of Battlecross

Thrash outfit is a testament to the power of positive thinking
By Peter Lindblad

Battlecross is Don Slater, Tony Asta,
Alex Bent, Kyle Gunther and
Hiran Deraniyagala
Rugged thrash-metal crusaders Battlecross hail from Canton, Mich., located just a few miles west of Detroit.

Emblematic of the tough, blue-collar environment that birthed them, the indomitable quintet of guitarists Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala, bassist Don Slater, drummer Alex Bent and vocalist Kyle Gunther has just released its third album, Rise To Power.

Out via Metal Blade Records, the punishing effort – the follow-up to 2013's War of Will – is a roiling cross-pollination of intense, blistering thrash and bone-crushing death-metal, as Battlecross hums along as a well-oiled machine that runs hot on scorching riffs, heavy grooves, powerhouse vocals and searing guitar harmonies that fly as close to the sun as possible.

Spouting a never-say-die philosophy that refuses to wallow in defeatism or self-pity, Battlecross chooses to concentrate on touting life-affirming values and living in the moment. And Rise To Power is their most aggressive stance yet, a battle cry that's uplifting, while acknowledging what difficult obstacles pain and frustration are to overcome.

Gathering momentum, after playing Metallica's Orion Fest and going out on the Mayhem Festival with the likes of Mastodon, Amon Amarth and Rob Zombie, Battlecross is on the verge of big things. Asta recently took time out to talk to All Access about the making of the band's new album and its attitude toward life in general.

Battle Cross - Rise to Power 2015
While touring in support of War of Will, you guys played Metallica's Orion Fest, the Mayhem Festival and the Download Festival. What lessons did you take away from those experiences and did they, in any way, influence the making of Rise To Power?
Tony Asta: The summer of 2013 was insane. Right of the bat… meeting James Hetfield, a personal idol of mine, was definitely a high point in my life. We shook hands and talked before we hit the stage and then he and Robert introduced us. It was unbelievable. The roar of the crowd and the intensity in the air was electric. That was the beginning of a long, hot, sweaty summer full of big crowds and insane mosh pits. The following summer we jumped the pond to Europe for the first time in our lives and experienced the old world, rich with history. We had the honor of touring with some phenomenal bands and every experience proves always to be learning experience. Soaking in the sights and sounds on the road can do a lot to someone, but overall, it has helped season us beyond our green days of the past. Rise To Power takes on new life with a rejuvenated confidence pulsing through every note. We’ve really done A LOT the past five years, and I am so proud of my bros and so thankful for our fans.

Describe what was happening during the writing sessions for Rise To Power. Why do you think they produced music that was even aggressive than previous efforts?
TA: Looking back, the writing process was much more fluid this time around. I approached writing with a relaxed but confident state of mind, which allowed the creativity to flow a little easier. I’m usually stressed out over everything band related, but something happened over time that really changed my perspective on things. It helps me rest easier to not take things too seriously or govern the day to day too militantly. I vividly remember the times we felt we’ve hit rock bottom – stranded, screwed over or broke, or whatever the situation may have been. It reminds me it could always be worse and to never sweat the small stuff. I’m then immediately so thankful for how far we’ve come. I think this attitude shines on this record. It’s that confidence and focus you have to possess to execute what we do. It may come off as more aggressive, but that’s up to the listener to decide. There are only two rules when it comes to what we write: No. 1 it has to kick you in the ass and No. 2 we won’t write the same album twice.

Do you think this album turned out heavier? If so, when did you realize that was the direction the record was heading in?
TA: What’s heavy to me may not be heavy to someone else, and vice versa, but I can say there are definitely some crushing tunes on this album. However, I can’t say if or when I realized the direction of the album because I didn’t really look at it that way. We approach each song as its own individual piece and deciding how each song fits with the other is sort of “after the fact." The only direction I can say it had to go was UP!

Talk about the differences between you and fellow guitarist Hiran Deraniyagala. You seem to have differing styles. How does that help shape the sound of Battlecross in general and this record in particular?
TA: I myself and Hiran have different styles, but I think we complement each other in a creative way. Hiran is a very aggressive player and his riff writing is somewhat linear in a traditional thrash metal or Slayer-esque style. He also brings a more brutal/extreme influence to the songwriting, and his down-picking is unmatched. On the other hand I dabble with syncopated rhythms, melodies/harmonies, and compositions. I like to think I have an ear for what sounds good, and I do a lot of the arranging. Don (Slater) also writes for the band. He brings a middle ground that really fills in the gaps with a lot of majestic ideas and riff writing. The combination we have helps create the sound we have. To our fans we’re holding down the foundation of what makes metal, metal, and to our critics maybe we’re too generic. But that’s fine because we’re doing what we love.

Alex Bent appeared on record for the first time with Battlecross on drums. How did his playing affect how Rise To Power turned out?
TA: Alex brought the glue and established a great flow for each song. He is a very talented and diverse drummer, and together we were able to do things this time around that broadened our horizons. We prefer not to be boxed in as just a “thrash metal” band because we really aren’t one. There is a lot to offer on this album, and Alex helped bring it to life.

Talk about working with producer Jason Suecof. What made him the right choice to produce this record?
TA: Jason has an amazing mind and a great ear. He’s unlike anyone we’ve worked with before. Jason is also a super shredder on guitar and had a lot of great ideas. I admit he’s a little unorthodox compared to prior experiences, but I absolutely love the guy. From the beginning we knew we wanted to return to Audiohammer studios and work with Mark Lewis. Mark mixed and mastered Rise To Power and between the two of them the production is far beyond our expectations. It’s absolutely crushing.

In what way does Rise to Power differ for you from War to Will? Does it seem more focused and tighter to you?
TA: Rise To Power is more focused than our previous albums. It isn’t any less aggressive or brutal, but it is more mature and less juvenile. What I mean by that is it’s not all over the place. You can really dig in and jam to it. It is tighter as well. The recording is captured at the best we can be, which is great for us because it absolutely helps set the bar for us as musicians. We have to play tight live, it pushes us to perform at our best.

Battlecross has a simple
message: live life while alive
What messages did you want to get across to listeners with this record?
TA: Our message is simple: live life while alive, and don’t let anyone hold you down. Crush those who oppose and rise above to conquer the ultimate goal. Life’s too short, take chances, trust in yourself … that type of positive mentality.

Talk about some of the individual songs on this record and your impressions of them, starting with "Blood & Lies" …

TA: I really prefer the listener to have their own interpretation of our material. I’ll have some fun with it though. Although each song was influenced by different specific things, "Blood & Lies," "Not Your Slave" and "Bound By Fear" have a similar root meaning. These songs touch on the “culture of fear,” and the notion that we are all slaves to something. It almost like Kyle is reiterating “F&% the Man!” but in a poetic way, haha. I think the important message to get from these songs is whatever the listener takes from them. It may mean something different to me than it does to someone else.

"The Path" …
TA: "The Path" is definitely a flagship song for us because it carries that strong message of perseverance no matter how long or hard the obstacles may be. This is one of my favorites.

"Absence” ...
TA: Kyle wrote this song about being on the road away from his son and absent from his life in a way. The important message is Kyle is leading by example and reaching for his dreams. Kids learn from that; they may not do as you say, but they will certainly do as you do. Absence touches on the rough times of being away from home while on the road, but the payoff of being on stage and reaching that high will keep him coming back for more. We do what we love because we love what we do.

You guys really carry the flag for thrash, and many have talked about how Battlecross is bringing a new energy to the genre. In what ways do you think you've helped to rejuvenate thrash? And what are your hopes for the genre as a whole going forward?
TA: Thanks for saying so. We really hope to leave a long lasting impression as we are here to stay. I can’t say if or how we’ve rejuvenated thrash, but I think having something more to offer keeps us out of that "box" and helps us cross over into other sub-genres of metal. I consider Battlecross to be a metal band first and foremost, but people can call us whatever they want. Metal continues to be alive and well because metal fans are the most loyal fans on the planet. I can’t see that ever changing so the future is always bright.

Short Cuts: Rivers Of Nihil, Battlecross, Cattle Decapitation

CD Review: Rivers Of Nihil – Monarchy
Metal Blade Records
All Access Rating: A

Rivers Of Nihil - Monarchy 2015
Adopting a terrifying god complex, Jeff Dieffenbach loudly roars the declaration, "I am the sun/I am the moon," his bellowing rage cutting through the dizzying maelstrom of complex riffs, blast beats and melodic grandeur that is "Sand Baptism." Here's where the world of Monarchy, the sprawling, ambitious new concept album from progressive death-metal architects Rivers Of Nihil, begins to turn. Religious tyranny is established amidst beautifully orchestrated sonic chaos. The new inhabitants of a desert-like earth, stewards of a planet barely worth saving, are divided into classes and their mutual destruction seems assured. Monarchy is Rivers Of Nihil's 2112, an epic dystopian tale brutally told that spills out in great sonic floods, exploring labyrinths of dark, astral melody as sonic devastation of biblical proportions occurs below in the furious grooves and violent intensity of "Ancestral, I" and the surging, explosive dynamics of "Perpetual Growth Machine" and "Reign of Dreams." What stunning, chimerical crescendos emerge from the post-rock tumult of "Circles In The Sky" and the instrumental ebbs and flows of "Terrestria II Thrive," and just when it seems Rivers Of Nihil couldn't possibly outdo themselves, the heavens open in the cinematic, ever-evolving closer "Suntold" and you're left speechless by its blinding brilliance. God save this Monarchy.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Battlecross – Rise To Power
Metal Blade Records
All Access Rating: A-


Battlecross - Rise To Power 2015
Taking no prisoners in their Rise To Power, thrash-metal's greatest hope for a glorious rebirth returns leaner and hungrier than ever. Going back to work, lunch bucket in hand, these angry boilermakers with their blue-collar ethos – coming off 2013's impossibly fast and furious War of Wills – have sharpened their visceral attack, growing ever more aggressive and vicious in doing so. From the one-two punch of a stampeding "Scars" on through "The Path," with its unpredictable mix of soaring, melodic twin-guitar leads, rampaging riffs and Van Halen-like swing, Battlecross lands a flurry of knockout punches on Rise To Power. Sounding more ferocious and tighter than on previous outings, there is ruthless efficiency and superhuman dexterity in their playing. Taking a page out of Pantera's playbook, these Michigan-based malcontents carve red-hot, irresistible grooves into "Not Your Slave," "The Climb," "Bound By Fear," "Despised" and "Blood and Lies," and for all the whiplash dynamics they employ here, these writhing, crashing tracks should come with a cervical collar. Classic thrash elements are thrown into a blender by Battlecross on Rise To Power with thermonuclear guitar solos and different vocal textures that growl and lash out like rattlesnakes, and what comes out is a fresh, combustible racket intent on leading a thrash revival.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction
Metal Blade Records
All Access Rating: A

Cattle Decapitation - The
Anthropocene Extinction 2015. 
Subtlety is not Cattle Decapitation's strong suit. Take the gruesome cover art of its latest extreme-metal manifesto, The Anthropocene Extinction, for instance, depicting ecological catastrophe so severe that earth has become a lifeless wasteland strewn with mangled corpses. And the title of this apocalyptic horror show suggests the planet itself is already in its death throes, choking on the polluting behavior of humanity. If that is, indeed, the case, Cattle Decapitation is going out with guns blazing, these angry giants constructing colossal sonic thrill rides to oblivion and delivering fiery, tempestuous sermons of judgement and recrimination tossed about by massive, pummeling riffs, crazed drumming and a variety of seething vocal textures that spit venom and hoary rage in exciting, sensory overloads "Mutual Assured Destruction," "Not Suitable For Life," and "Apex Blasphemy." The sheer brutality, calculated aggression and chaotic math of "Manufactured Extinct" are awesome to behold, as is the all-consuming closer "Pacific Grim" – its menacing, heavy chugs, widescreen guitars and machine-gun rhythms creating an overwhelmingly intense aural experience that is not for the faint of heart. And such is also the case for "The Prophets of Loss," where one Philip Anselmo lends a hand with vocals, and "Plagueborne," with its neck-breaking tempo changes, as the breathtaking violence and enormity of The Anthropocene Extinction leaves one dazed and disoriented, with the unexpected shifts of "Clandestine Ways (Krokodil Rot)" and the blazing solar storm that is "Circo Inhumanitas" sucking all the air out of your lungs. What's truly chilling, however, is the funereal acoustic dirge "Ave Exitium," as hopeless and forlorn a eulogy as you're likely to ever hear. There are about a thousand different maneuvers taking place within the stretched boundaries of every track, and each one will send jaws plummeting to the floor, and the crazy thing is, for all the surprises they spring, they all make perfect sense. Even a few compelling strains of melody can be gleaned from the madness. A nominee for album of the year, without question.
– Peter Lindblad

Digital review: Crowbar – Equilibrium

Digital Review: Crowbar – Equilibrium
eOne Music
All Access Rating: A-

Crowbar - Equilibrium 2015
Anybody who can turn Gary Wright's mid-'70s starry-eyed, soft-rock smash "Dreamweaver" into an epic, sludge-metal space odyssey – where even the hard of hearing can make out Kirk Windstein's hoary, all-encompassing screams as clear as day – deserves sainthood.

So does Equilibrium, the sixth album from Crowbar, and the last with original bassist Todd Strange. A game-changer for the NOLA heavyweights originally released 15 years ago, the jaw-dropping Equilibrium is now available digitally for the first time from eOne Music and begging to be reassessed. Back in the spring of 2000, it served notice that Crowbar's dark ambitions were becoming fully realized.

Tunneling its way deep inside some interstellar vortex of sound, Crowbar's swarming, cinematic cover of "Dreamweaver" is a mesmerizing aural experience, and it may just be the band's crowning achievement. Those bearing witness to the minor-key ruins of "To Touch the Hand of God," with its expansive, choral-like vocal arrangements, rainy intro and lonely, doom-laden piano plunking, might disagree, however.

Obviously, Equilibrium is ponderously heavy, its massive bulk breaking any scale that would attempt to measure the sheer tonnage of lugubrious, bulldozing title track and its slowly churning, ever-widening cousin "Command of Myself," precursors to the trudging, exploding punishment of "Eurphoria Minus One" and an even more vigorously combustible "Things You Can't Understand."

Sammy Pierre Duet joined Windstein on guitar, with Sid Montz on drums, for Equilibrium, the low-tuned, six-string devastation throughout retaining the hairy edge of Crowbar's hardcore punk roots –manifested in the raging, faster-paced "Uncovering." Where the band's last album, Symmetry in Black, unhinged its jaws and devoured everything in its path, Equilibrium is tougher, it hits harder and the payoffs are more immediate. Hopefully Crowbar will play a good portion of these tracks on its upcoming "Summer of Doom" tour with Lord Dying and Battlecross. Welcome to the 21st century, Equilibrium.
– Peter Lindblad