In terms of all of that, how do you see the band’s place in the current metal scene?
I feel that we fit. I definitely think where we’re fitting is a good question. We feel we fit one place, but fans who like our music may think we fit somewhere else. There’s a current crop of metal bands that we really dig that are around today, like Early Man and Municipal Waste, bands we can share some of the same influences—not all, but some—and it’s a fresh take on stuff we grew up with.
I feel we fit in those areas. I don’t really think the band is fitting in with the puffy shirt power metal crew from Europe, but we have the same influences as those bands too. And not all of those bands are horrible. But, I think the band has shifted in the last few years from the automatic. You hear the high falsetto vocal, then boom, okay they’re power metal; we’ll put them in that drawer and then move on. I’d say we toured enough in the last couple years, especially in the states, and let people know that there’s a lot more going on than that puffy pirate shirt kind of band.
So then what do you think of the term ‘Battle Metal’?
In terms of current music, I’m kind of an idiot when it comes to what’s going on. I have what I call my favorite underground rock and metal bands now, but I’m not very aware of scenes or anything like that. When you’re young I think it’s easy to get caught up in that, but I’m just so into what we’re doing and listening to stuff I’ve listened to all my life, like early ZZ Top, UFO and early Metallica. If you were to play me a band like Avenged Sevenfold, I wouldn’t know who it was. I’ll read metal mags, cuz I still do that, but I don’t know what ‘Battle Metal’ is? I mean, we could definitely call ourselves that with our lyrical content, sure, but me not having an answer kind of answers that in a way. Ten years ago there weren’t that many denominations of music, now it’s so easy to just say ‘oh they’re battle metal,’ or ‘oh, they’re neo-post-punk-grind-grunge’ (laughs) or something like that and I just think it’s funny.
How was working with Joey Jordison?
It was lots of fun. It all started out by accident. We were touring with Satyricon, a black metal band from Norway, and their drummer couldn’t make it over here, so Joey filled in. We had a chance to meet and he got to hear us every day for a month. Being on the same label as his main band, Slipknot, [he] let the record company let us know that he was interested in producing the record. We knew that he was just a straight up encyclopedia of metal, he definitely knew where we’re coming from, so we did some demos together and it worked good, so we decided to do the record. It was such an easy thing to do; his producing and arranging skills are really great. He’s a world class musician. He helped bring out everyone’s individual performance and basically just kicked the whole band in the ass; everyone’s playing at the top of their game.
It sounds so funny me saying these clichéd record- coming-out kind of quotes, ‘oh, everyone’s at the top of our game,’ ‘it’s the best album we’ve ever done!’ But what I mean to say is everyone’s really happy with what happened, he was great to work with.
What are your expectations for this summer’s free Ozzfest?
I definitely expect to play in front of people who don’t know who we are and have never heard us—that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. I can’t wait to see our fans, but bringing our music to new people is the biggest bonus of Ozzfest for us, because we’re relatively unknown and I’m sure there’ll be people walking by or stuck in the crowd and they’ll have to check us out for a bit, and maybe they’ll get hooked? If not, no big deal. We’re content with doing our thing and doing the slow word-by- mouth ‘if two people dig it, cool, four people come next time’ thing. We’re just really into what we’re doing. It’ll be a great time partying with the other bands, though.
Is there anyone in particular you’re looking forward to sharing the stage with?
Yeah! Behemoth. They’re on the second stage as well, and we’re big fans of Behemoth. And Nile too, there’s a lot of extreme metal fans in our band. Mondo Generator is on the second stage too, I think that’s gonna be really cool. Nick Oliveri was in the first incarnation of Kyuss, and he was in Queens Of The Stone Age for a while, but he’s the guitar player/singer of Mondo Generator. It’ll be a really cool ‘mix it up a little bit, show a little rock for everyone’s metal’ kind of thing. On the main stage there’s some great stuff going on, too, like Lamb Of God. I’m a big fan, looking forward to seeing that. It’ll be interesting I’m sure.
Fire Up The Blades is available now. For information and tour dates check out 3inchesofblood.com
