I don’t think Nevermore needs an introduction here. Their last album "Dead Heart In A Dead World" was such a huge success that the only way to get in touch with them is between their tours. I had this exclusive chance to do so after their tour with Annihilator and just right before they hit the road with Dimmu Borgir, In Flames, Susperia and Lacuna Coil. And since this was a tour report press day I mostly concentrated on their life on the road. Here’s what Jeff Loomis (guitar) had to say...

Chris


Are you surprised with such a huge success of your last album?

Yeah, pretty much. I’m very surprised as far as it’s a lot of number ones in Europe over here in many magazines, so it does surprise us. I mean, we don’t like sit at home and write music and just think it’s going to be this way, it’s kind of just happened for this album, so we feel very fortunate. I think it’s definitively our best work to date and I’m very happy with it.

It has to feel good to travel all over the world and headline or co-headline most of the tours.

Oh yeah [laughs] It’s awesome. This has been the most traveling that we’ve ever done. As far as just the last tour we did, we went to 11 new places that we’ve never been before. We went to Romania and that was insane. There were about 3000 people there and I just couldn’t believe the turnout. I think they actually had a big concert there about 3 years ago when the Iron Maiden played so you have to know that they were probably very hungry for metal and that’s why so many of them showed up. There was a lot of police there too, it was all over the news, so that was really exciting. It was really cool.

So, how good were the record sales of "Dead Heart In A Dead World"?

I’m not sure exactly how many but I think a lot. In Germany alone it’s about 50 thousand. In the future we probably sell quite a bit more with all the touring we are doing right now.

Ok, since this is an exclusive Tour Report Press Day we are not going to talk about your last album but we rather concentrate on your touring. What’s the Nevermore live line up right now? Any additional musicians?

Yeah, actually Nevermore is enough to hang as a four piece band which is me, Warrel Dane the singer, Jim Sheppard the bass player and Van Williams the drummer but we have hired a guitar player. He’s name is Curran Murphy and he is living in Seattle with us and he comes out on the road with us just to fill in as a additional guitar player. We had some problems in the past holding on to other guitar players so now we just decided to hire them on for the tour.

You just finished one tour with Annihilator, now you start another one with Dimmu Borgir, In Flames, Susperia and Lacuna Coil to come back to States and have another one with Opeth. This is like dreams come true...

I know. It’s really amazing to me. You go pick up a metal magazine and you can like point a picture and say "Hey, I’ve done something with those guys". It’s really, really cool. We’ve definitely made a lot of good friends on this adventure. It’s a pleasure to work with a lot of these people and I really enjoy meeting these people too. We just met some really great guys from a band called Soilwork, which was also on the tour with us and Annihilator. We became a very close friends with those guys and all huge fans of them too; we really like that band. It’s really cool to be on the road and be able to hang out with these guys.

That’s great. I’ve noticed during my interviews that not only fans are saying good words about your last album but also a lot of musicians dream about going with you guys on the tour...

Yeah? [laughs] Oh that’s a killer! It’s news to me. It’s really great to hear that. It’s a complement.

What do you do before you go on stage? How do you prepare, if at all?

Yeah, I’m not as young as I use to be [laughs] I usually have to warm up for about 15-20 minutes before I go hit the stage. It’s a lot different now. We used to play for only about 40 minutes, now when we are co-headlining the tours and you have to play for an hour and 15 minutes every night you have to prepare yourself a little bit, make sure you are warmed up

Which tour was your best ever and why?

I have to say that one of the cooler tours we ever did was one of the very first US tours back in 1995 with Death cause we really felt like Chuck Schuldiner really gave us our beginning for asking us to go on the tour with him. He’s such a great guy and fan of the band as well. We had some really great times on that tour so that probably had to be my favorite one. Plus, Gene Hoglan is a great guy too [laughs], he was on that tour as well. It was just phenomenal to hang out with such killer musicians.

In your opinion, which country has the craziest metal fans?

Greece, man!!! [laughs] There are so many crazy people in Greece, the kids are so hungry for metal there. It’s just crazy how they react when you come up on the stage. They just freak out over metal, they love it.

Is there still a place in the world would you like to play?

I’d like to go to play in Mexico City. I’ve heard that it’s really great there. I’ve heard the metal scene is really fantastic. That, and I think we would also like to go to South America and play there too and I think that’s actually going to happen sometime in the near future. Also another place I would like to play would probable be Japan. We are planning on going there sometime this year. I’m not sure when it’s going to be but probably sometime in the next 5 or 6 months.

What is your favorite song to play live?

I would have to say "Narcosynthesis" it’s the first song of the album and it just comes up very powerful and it’s one of my favorite songs on the album right now. It’s really cool cause when you play a song and you have a crowd that seems to know all the lyrics and they are singing along to it that makes it that much more powerful, so I have to say "Narcosynthesis" is my favorite one to play live.

Is there still a band would you like to play with?

I would like to meet Frederik Thordendal from Meshuggah. They are one of my favorite bands and I’d like to do some guitar work with him [laughs]. I think this guy is phenomenal; he’s a killer. He’s an awesome guitar player. Actually I had a chance to meet him once on a festival, I believe it was the Dynamo, like two years ago, but I didn’t get a very long chance to chat with him.

What’s your most embarrassing moment on the stage?

Oh man, there are plenty of them [laughs]. I got those big-ass boots and I always find myself tripping over my guitar cables, so I’ve got to get used to walking in them. It’s kind of like Ace Frehley from Kiss, but not as extreme [laughs]. We all have a lot embarrassing moments on the stage but that’s life.

You have to have tons of special moments from the road. Can you share some of the most bizarre ones?

There is that mad-cow disease going on now here, so there are a lot of weird things that are happening with people that are rioting on the streets during our travels. A lot of those farmers are really angry that they are killing off so many animals and a lot of times we have to stop in the middle of the highway and try to get those people out of the way so we can move on to another place. We’ve run to a lot of wired stuff like that. That’s been kind of strange.

Which one of you parties, drinks the most on the tour?

Oh God, I don’t know. We all try to take care of ourselves but we all enjoy drinking beer sometimes. We’re all about the same.

Looking at your busy schedule do you have time to write any songs for your new album?

Actually what we are going to do is buy those little portable studios, they are called PSOT Studios. They are like little handheld studios, it’s like the smallest little thing they make in the world, so we’ll be able to do some writing on the road with those. We are going to get 3 of those things; one for the singer, one for me and one for another guitar player. It’s really cool because it’s so small you are able to write inside of the bus if you want to. I think that once you start getting bigger as a band you get less and less downtime to really write, so you have to make the most out of the time as possible when you are on the road. It’s difficult but you have to get it done somehow. Normally, I actually prefer writing at home but I’m not going to be home very much this year.

Don’t you feel any pressure to top "Dead Heart In A Dead World"?

Yeah, I think about it sometimes. I think that really the trick is, is not to think about it and whenever you come up with the part or an idea always make sure you get it down on tape somehow and hopefully by the end of the whole process you'll end up with another good song and eventually with another good album. But I always get that weird feeling in my stomach that I’m not going to be able to do anything better but I just try not to think about it and do the best I can. That’s all you can really do and hopefully the fans will enjoy it as much as you do.

Any info on how it’s going to sound, maybe some titles?

We are thinking of calling the album "Psychotic Intellectual Narcotic" [laughs] I don’t know how we came up with that... I don’t even know our plans really. I don’t even know if we are going to work with our producer Andy Sneap, he’s a very busy guy right now, he’s very popular, everybody wants him in the metal world for a producer because he’s very good in what he does. I mean, it’s all a timing thing if he has the time off and we have the time off maybe we will work with him again. If not, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens. I think that we will probably end up recording in this same place thou where we always record in Texas. It’s a really nice studio down there, it’s called Village Recorders. Hopefully we will be down there recording the album.

How about the music direction? Same style as on "Dead Heart..."?

Probably it will be the heaviest thing we’ve ever done. Speed metal! [laughs] It’s always going to get heavier for me, it always does. I always try to top what I’ve done in the past. I don’t know if it’s going to be like Cannibal Corpse or anything like that but it’s going to be heavy. That’s all I can say.

I don’t see you guys playing like Cannibal Corpse after "Dead Heart...", maybe for now let’s try something in between...

[we laugh] There you go, that’s what I was thinking too.

OK Jeff, you answered all my touring questions and our time is up, anything to add...

Yeah, I would like to thank the fans for buying "Dead Heart In A Dead World" and just want to say that the fans are the most important thing to us and we always try to write true music for them and not change our ways. I hope that everyone is happy with the new album and hope to see everybody on tour in USA with Opeth.

After writing the review for the album I couldn’t possibly stay away from Omega Prayer and Abhordium. I’ve been going back to the album quite often, so when the opportunity presented itself and there was a chance to do an interview, I just went for it. Arttu Aalto (drums) was nice enough and agreed to answer my questions - so click on the video to listen to the tracks and get to reading.

Tomek

Thank you for finding time to this interview, how cold is Finland this time of the year?

Hi! It has been pretty cold last few weeks. Around -10 to -20 degrees Celsius. It's still nothing compared to what it used to be 15-20 years ago. You can clearly see that the climate is changing. It's usually rainy and slushy weather from late autumn to late spring nowadays, at least here in Southern Finland.

Quite different from temperatures in Florida [laughs] How is Abhordium nowadays?

We're quite busy right now writing new material, promoting the new album and trying to arrange some gigs.

New material in the works already!! Keeping busy aren't you? Here is one that you probably hate already [laughs] how would you define the meaning of the word Abhordium?

It is meant to describe a feeling of extreme abhorrence. The conflicts of views, beliefs and values tend to induce hatred and abhorrence in people - and when taken to extreme proportions, it can drive them to atrocities. So in a way it also represents the destructive power of man.

Some time has passed since the release of the album Omega Prayer, and from what I can see on the net the word is good. How does it feel to know you did well?

It feels good of course. There were many issues during the years which delayed the release of the album, but we're glad it's finally out so we can concentrate on new material and playing gigs.

Album sounds and looks really good, so congrats on a job well done. Do you guys work on everything together?

Thanks! Yes we try to work together as much as we can. I live in Paimio nowadays, which is a small town about 20km from Salo, so the arranging of practice time and other sessions concerning the band has become a little bit harder.

New album has been out for more than two months now, what are the best things you've heard about the album, how about the funniest?

The most satisfying thing is to hear that people like the songs, the sound and the atmosphere on the album, because everything except the cover art and, of course, the pressing of the album was done by ourselves, so it's nice to hear this kind of feedback and appreciation of our art. Maybe the funniest in my opinion was this one short review that described our music as boring standard death metal hah! Negative and constructive criticism is of course always welcome, but that review was just really crappy. Well, we do not expect everyone to like our music.

What is Omega Prayer?

The album has visions of the end of our civilization by the actions of man, so it is the last prayer of a man when he faces his ruin and realizes that he has caused his own perdition. In the title track there are also aspects of the natural side of change and renewal through destruction. So, omega prayer can also be seen as a wish for the powers of nature to exterminate human race.

Most of you play in other bands so I was wondering how you handle working on new songs. Is there a decision maker/leader/tyrant that picks and chooses, or is everything being agreed on?

Like I said in the earlier question, we try to work together as much as possible, but I've been taking more responsibility on making new material, since Jarkko left the band, but all of us try to generate new ideas and then write them down or record them, and after that we try to refine them together.

Since everything is handled by all of you in Abhordium; who is responsible for what, how do you divide all the responsibilities?

We try to divide the responsibilities, but there have been certain roles that some of the members have taken. Kari and Henry has handled the business side, promotion and arranging gigs and me, Tommi and Markus have been focusing on making new material and taking care of the social media, and some of the promotion also.

With everything being taken care of how are you still not signed to a label? Are all the offers really that weak?

We are still currently looking for labels that would be interested in our material. We've received a few offers, but most of them have been either too expensive or we saw that they could not offer enough efficiency for the band, because we know the cost of pressing the album and the other production concerning it. So once again, we decided to release the album by ourselves.

Is that the reason for such a long break between the releases?

Yes, this is one of the reasons, but like I said earlier there were also other issues concerning the release of this album. From financial problems to other hardships in personal lives and also losing our rehearsal place, but still we managed to release it and the good feedback has motivated us to make new material.

You just unleashed two live videos, but only one is for a song from the new album. Was there any particular reason for such choice?

Those were the songs that went well and had the best looking material from that gig and of course the editing costs so these were the main reasons we chose these two songs.

Why did you choose to record that day and what other songs have been recorded, are we gonna see more videos coming out?

Because we had the equipment for recording that day as it was planned earlier that it would be nice to have a few live videos from that gig. The whole gig was recorded, but for me that wasn't the best performance, because the night before this gig we played in Helsinki, and I had a little fever. Luckily, I felt a little bit better on the next day. This was the first time that I've been sick on a gig and it fucking sucked to play those blast beats. It wasn't the wisest choice to play but at least now I know my limits. Yes we have been planning to record new live videos, because they are a good material for promotion.

Since we are talking about playing live, what are the 3 songs you just have to play when you're on stage? Are they fan or more of a band favorite?

From this album they would be 'Asebeia', 'At The Highest Temple' and 'Perpetual Desertification'. We've noticed that these songs have received the best feedback from the listeners/audience. I think it's the groove, the atmosphere and the crushing riffs in these songs that make most of the people like them and because of this we like to play them live.

While on the subject, will you follow the release of the new album with some touring; are there shows on the agenda yet, and most importantly - any USA dates?

We have only few gigs here in Finland, but we've been in touch with a foreign booking agency, however we haven't come to any conclusion yet. We are currently searching for more possibilities to play in foreign countries and we would certainly like to perform in USA some day. We hope that it will be possible in the near future.

As I mentioned before, most of you are currently members of other bands; between all the bands you are in, all the things that you do, and all the promotion you do for all of it - what do you do to unwind?

I don't know about the other guys but I usually watch movies, listen to some music or take a long walk in the forest with my dogs.

Any Finnish bands that you have been listening to lately?

Vargrav's debut Netherstorm caught my attention and also Desolate Shrine's latest album Deliverance From The Godless Void.

Are you a vinyl collector or more of a CD guy? Which one do you buy?

I've been collecting CDs but I don't have many, around 200 or something, mostly from the artists that I've been listening to for a long time. Of course I would like to have more and it would be also cool to own a vinyl collection one day.

Thanks for your time. Last line is yours.

Thank you for this interview and thanks to all of those who have supported us during the years!

For a young band, Italian Alldead impressed me with variety of stylistic solutions and songwriting maturity on its debut "End Gates". It looks like this band has all the artistic qualities to stand out from the depths of the underground, so I decided to dig deeper and learn more. Drummer Rudolfo gave me a rundown on how their first child was conceived and how cover band turned into something I'll be looking forward to in the future.

Chris

Since 'End Gates' is your debut, please introduce the band and tell us how it all started?

Hi Chris & Metalbite crew! I'm Rodolfo, I'm Alldead drummer and I'm glad to answer to your interview questions! Alldead was originally called "Redrum", a childhood friends’ band, born only to enjoy ourselves playing all death - thrash - metal covers. After some interesting local live gigs, we naturally quit rehearsing metal hits and started to create our own songs with the intent to join all our various metal influences. Lately Luca Miolla and Antonio War joined the project, the name changed to Alldead and with me, Aldo and Francesco we created the band.

'End Gates' might be you debut but it feels like you have been around the block for a while. Have you guys been playing in other bands before Alldead? What are your music backgrounds?

Yes you're right, we are not exactly metal kids. Each of us played in other bands in the past, like Aldo Francesco and Antonio, which come from various classic Thrash and Death metal projects. Luca is playing in two more bands such as Winds of Funeral (classic Black Metal) and with me on drums in Assaulter (Thrash Metal). And finally, I have been playing since 1989 in various projects and studio releases such as Funeral Oration (Sursum Luna), The Sovran (City Kills, The Sovran is Dead), Assaulter (Crushed by Raging Mosh EP) and various demo recordings.

You call yourself Alldead, album is titled 'End Gates'… seem like you're not giving us, humans, any hope and much chance of survival. Is this your vision for our future?

The concept of "Alldead " is the meaning of total end of the life on earth… where the mankind is going to anyway! It is also, for us, the total ending of the boring music classification and metal genres.

What do you have against classification of metal genres? I personally like to know what I'm buying. In the past I bought few albums based on the cover only and let me tell you those might be the worst purchase decisions ever. :)

We don't have anything against classifications, but when we started this project, we have decided to put no limits to the creativity and we follow only what appeared to be suitable for the proper development of each song. The vocal setting of Antonio did the rest...

Is end of the world your main lyrical subject? Are lyrics based on personal observations/beliefs or purely fictional stories?

Our lyrics include occult & gloomy life introspective experience (black light of death), obscure lust (something dark grows) and sex addiction (Eternal desire), etc.

With lots of music styles heard on this album the creative process must include many of the band members? Am I correct? How does your typical process of creating a song look like?

There is not a fixed creative process in Alldead. For sure we start our songwriting only when we feel inspiration and right atmosphere. We create music together starting from guitarist riffs during some rehearsal sessions, or other times one of us comes in the studio with a good idea and we work on the structure till we have a good result! If one of us is not satisfied (it happened in the past), we've decided to erase the entire song and restart from zero.

With so many ideas it seems like sometimes it's hard to let go few of them… Don't you think that almost 10 minute songs are a little too much for black/death style?

We basically do anything we want, and the description (black death) is only a "convention" to guide listeners and the public to our kind of music. By our point of view each song requires a different duration according as themes and structure we planned.

When writing new material do you see mistakes, things you would do differently on 'End Gates' or are you completely satisfied with you debut?

Surely, when each of us listened again to the album, we could find some things that in hindsight one could play or sing in a different way, but when you are in the creative process you are sure that at that moment you are making the best choices. It is normal that over time everyone would like to improve what they did, but I do not think that there are some real mistakes in the work done. I wish we’d never be satisfied... because I think that would increase the creativity as an artist.

Your album is self released. Is it your deliberate choice or you actively look for a record label?

Yes of course, we're actually looking for a record label.

What are band's short and long term plans?

We really move to play always more live gigs, abroad too, and as already said, we're looking for a record label for a worldwide distribution of the End Gates album! Anyway, we never stand with the fateful "idle hands" and we're just working on new more fast obscure and gloomy stuff!

Anything else would you like to say to promote your album or just get out of your system?

We consider our album a gloomy unconventional and powerful expression of metal music, so we would recommend it to anyone who loves to hear every nuance of this genre; that they will definitely find something exciting to hear! Follow us!