The latest years went under
the tendency of coming back to metal business once well-known artists. RAZOR,
NASTY SAVAGE, EXCITER, EXODUS...I could enumerate them till I count up to the
sensational reunion of BLACK SABBATH or ridiculous farce of SEX PISTOLS. However,
the «second coming» of Canadian INFERNAL MAJESTY caught everybody by
surprise... In spite of the overwhelming success of the «None Shall Defy» album
in 1987, the band mysteriously disappeared, having left the ghostly haze of
classic thrash metal and a good memory behind. Ten years later the name of this
Toronto band reappeared in metal mass media due to the re-release of «None
Shall Defy» through the Dutch label Displeased. Re-release was nominated
the-best-of-the-kind in 1997 and favorably effected their coming back in 1998. The
second album «Unholier Than Thou» was released on the local label Hypnotic and
appeared to be a heavy death metal doze in its best. Unfortunately, the band
failed to play live in Kotowitce with CANNIBAL CORPSE and DARK FUNERAL in
October 1998. I heard there were some visa problems. Still we had a chance to
talk shop with the guitarist Steve Terror and the bass player Chay McMullen
before their gig in the Belorussian capital.
What do you feel about coming
back on stage after about ten years of being silent?
Steve Terror: We were not
silent. We have always been together. The only problem is - we didn’t have a
new record contract. But now we have a got a new record deal so now we are
back. So, we’ve been around. Yeah, a lot of people didn’t know what we were
doing. But we are still together.
Well, there are a lot of good
labels, why hasn’t any of them offered you a record deal?
Steve: We had offers but
they weren’t very good. So we just said: «No». We waited for the right offer. That’s
what happens with a lot of new bands: they make one record and then never can
be heard again. So bad! We wanted to make sure we sign a deal with a big
company. When MALEVOLENT CREATION asked us to tour with them last year
everybody wanted to sign us then ‘cos we were on tour. So we got so many
contracts that when we came back to Canada we sat down, we looked at them all
and then we said: «OK, we gonna sign a contract with Hypnotic records.» And -
boom! The record’s out. That’s what we wanted.
Are you still satisfied with
Hypnotic?
Steve: Yes, great. So
far so good. ‘Cos they’ve got VOIVOD, they’ve got RAIZOR, they’ve got
KATAKLYSM, they have us. So they’ve got a lot of good bands, all Canadian
bands. You know what I mean? Our record company will pay attention to us ‘cos
we are the Canadians, and if we would sign with Century Media it might just be:
«Oh, you’re just another band!» Hypnotic were even with us on tour during first
two weeks.
Was the label patronizing you?
Steve: No! They never say:
«Oh, I think they should write more like this or they should write more like
that». They get suggestions but we just say: «Bad idea». And during our tour
they realized that we were right. They understood what we are all about.
It seems to me Hypnotic signed
not merely Canadian bands but the old school Canadian bands....
Steve: Yes. Ant that’s
totally objective. I wanna make the scene in Canada back again. ‘Cos there is
no scene in Canada at all. We just did a Canadian tour, it was all right but
here in Europe you can have five or six hundred people at night and in Canada -
two hundred at night. SLAYER played in Canada two years ago, three years ago -
two thousand people. This tour - one thousand people. For SLAYER, the biggest
band! But that’s Canada, Canada has no scene right now. We are trying to keep
our music alive. We are trying to keep thrash alive, CANNIBAL CORPSE is trying
to keep their music alive, DARK FUNERAL still keeps corpse paint - and they try
to keep their music alive. You know, we can’t play in pub, we are playing
thrash. And we haven’t changed our style. If you listen to our latest record
you’ll know it’s us. You’ll know it’s INFERNAL MAJESTY. That’s what we are
trying to do, we are not gonna change. We’ll never brake up, INFERNAL MAJESTY
will always be around.
Don’t you think you might
someday turn to the copycats of yourselves playing the same thrash staff for
years?
Chay McMullen: No. Thrash is so
diverse, you can do with it so much without copying yourself.
Steve: Like when we write
a song we sit and work on the parts, we listen to it: «Does it sound like what
we have done before?» or «Can we do it better than that?». Believe me, what we
put on the album is the best we can do on that time. Sure, there’s obviously
some changes we would like to make now ‘cos we had time to adjust it. Now we
work on a new album and it’s gonna sound like INFERNAL MAJESTY but it’s not
gonna sound like anything we’ve done.
OK, what about lyrics? Are you
going to explore the new territories?
Steve: The first album
was more about a darker side. But now we write about the real things. Like we
wrote a song about war, it was about Afghanistan. We are writing about subjects
that people might not remember but for our type of music it works very well. We
take a subject and write about it. The Roman song is all about the Romans. We
tell the true stories instead of fantasy and make-believe. The next album - who
knows? Lyrically we know what we gonna do but we have to put it on the paper.
Chay: On the new album
all the stories are about the darker side of human history.
When you first started as a
band in the beginning of the ‘80s, thrash metal was very popular but then it
died. What do you think of thrash metal nowadays?
Steve: Well, I find a lot
of people now who wants the old school of thrash back and a lot of bands are
trying to do that but by some reasons they can’t do it. And I don’t know why.
Chay: You got bands and
a bunch of kids, let’s say seventeen years old, and they wanna play old school
thrash. When the old school was about they were four - five years old. So they
didn’t grow up listening to it, they were not influenced and they grew up
listening to PANTERA or METALLICA and they are trying to go back and play stuff
of EXODUS and bands like that. But they have no influences of the past! And it
doesn’t quite even true. That’s not the case with us - we are a bit older, ha
ha!
Steve: We listened to
JUDAS PRIEST, we listened to IRON MAIDEN. Those were our influences. Today’s
kids’ influences are FEAR FACTORY, METALLICA, PANTERA, SLAYER. So their style
is gonna be a little different. We were brought up in different eras, we were
influenced by different bands. And a lot of bands today come up to us saying:
«You, guys, are big influence to us.» Which is really good to hear...
Chay: Well, thrash
metal is coming back. Though in Canada it’s still nothing because the industry
refuses to recognize it. They want to make a «quick buck», so they listen to
what is popular today. «Everybody likes FEAR FACTORY so we’ll only sign bands
that sound like FEAR FACTORY.» And the radio stations are only playing bands
that sound like FEAR FACTORY.
Steve: But there are a
lot of good new bands. We got a lot of CDs and tapes, people send them to us
and I listen to it. And there are so many good bands! Like MESHUGA for
instance. When I first heard this band I said: «That’s different. That’s good.»
They stood out about twenty bands I listened to. The other twenty - I don’t
remember who they are, I won’t listen to it again. There’s good thrash and
there’s bad thrash.
Chay: But if the bands
want to promote their stuff and take a chance it can be huge then. But unless
the industry is going to accept that trend it’ll always be the underground. A
young band can’t bang against the wall for years trying to get somewhere,
knocking everywhere.
Steve: See, that’s why I
am disappointed with new SLAYER. I think they did a bad move. They were the
influence for a lot of bands and over the sudden with the last two albums it
seemed like «We don’t know where are we going». I don’t want my band go like:
«Let’s change some things because they are more popular». But METALLICA did it.
It’s not «Ride The Lightning», it’s not «Master of Puppets»...
Chay: It’s not even
heavy metal any more. Rock ‘n roll, Brit-pop.
Steve: They have totally
changed their style, they are going now where the money is. Which is fine,
that’s what they wanted to do. No problem. But I think they went totally away
from the roots.
Chay: The same thing
with new SLAYER. The first time I heard the new album in my friend’s house. And
I thought it was a new BIOHAZARD. I like BIOHAZARD, I think it’s a good music. And
if somebody else have put out this album I would really enjoy it. But because
of being SLAYER fan since «Hell Awaits» I just said: «This is not SLAYER
anymore».
Well, a lot of bands do care
about money...
Steve: We all care about
money. We wouldn’t have been around for so long if it was not for money. But
there’s nothing else we wanna do but play. And if kids enjoy and they still
wanna come and see the show - perfect, we’ll keep on doing that.
Chay: You see, a lot of
people tell us: «Thank you for not changing your style like everybody else has
done!» So we still follow our roots. Money can’t change it.
And in general, could you
explain what thrash is all about?
Chay: It’s aggression.
It’s very aggressive. For me, personally, the great thing is to get up on stage
in front of people and play. I get such an adrenaline rush of it and it makes
me feel so good. That’s thrash for me. Well, now everything is categorized, you
got thrash...
Steve: Death...
Chay: Doom...
Steve: Black...
Chay: There are so
many...
Steve: Gothic!
Industrial?
Steve and Chay: Yeah!
Steve: And sometimes you
got three: industrial-doom-death...
Chay: And thrash!
Steve: Yeah! We just what
we are. We are INFERNAL MAJESTY, if you wanna call us «thrash» - fine, if you
wanna call us «old school» - fine. We just play what we play and if kids enjoy
it - great. We are back! So stay true to thrash!